Catalogue > Un extrait vidéo au hasard

`The mirror is dark and inky` is comprised of images of daily life in Iran- driving through the city in the afternoon, playing board games with friends- alongside the narration of a neighbour concerned about a whale living in a bath in her apartment building. As the film progresses, we leave the city behind and move into the forest in northern Iran, where the narration turns inwards to a “feeling that does not come from my brain, it more erupts and descends like a fog, barely perceptible until it is enveloping, with a similar cold, dewy feeling.” The whale is the mirror and the mirror is dark and inky. Filmed on location in Tehran and northern Iran, two participants narrate the film and perform the roles.

Kevin Gaffney is a visual artist working in film and photography, living and working in Dublin. He graduated from the Royal College of Art`s MA Photography & Moving Image in 2011, and received an Honorary Mention from the Startpoint Prize for Emerging Artists. He was awarded a Sky Academy Arts Scholarship for the development of a new body of work (2015); was an UNESCO-Aschberg laureate artist in residence at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art’s Changdong Residency in South Korea (2014); and received a Film Project Award from the Arts Council of Ireland for the creation of a new film while artist in residence at the Taipei Artist Village, Taiwan (2014). His work is part of the Irish Museum of Modern Art`s collection and has been shown in exhibitions and film festivals internationally, including: Out There, Thataway at CCA Derry~Londonderry (2015); the Alchemy Film & Moving Image Festival (Scotland, 2015); We at Catalyst Arts (Belfast, 2012); Abandon Normal Devices at Cornerhouse (Manchester, 2012); and solo exhibitions at the Contemporary Art Institute CAI02 (as part of the Sapporo International Art Festival, Japan, 2014); the Galway Arts Centre (2013); and RUA RED South Dublin Arts Centre (2011).