The Other North
Jesse Jones’ solo-exhibition at CCA, The Other North, features a new film co-commissioned with Artsonje Center, Seoul, South Korea. The Other North developed from Jones’ research in 2012 and 2013 in South Korea and the Korean Demilitarised Zone (DMZ), the strip of land that divides the Korean peninsula and acts as a ‘buffer’ between North and South. Jones’ experiences in Korea led to an exploration of archival footage from Northern Ireland dating from the late 1960s to the 1990s. The Other North evolved from research into a film called The Steel Shutter, 1974, which documents a “conflict resolution therapy session” held by American psychologist Carl Rogers in the early 1970s with individuals from various political and socio-economic backgrounds in Northern Ireland. Using transcripts of these therapy sessions as scripts to be performed by actors as verbatim theatre, Jones re-stages the event in Korea, re-enacting the film with eleven Korean actors.
The transfer of the historical narrative of Northern Ireland to a Korean context aims to create a Brechtian estrangement; a vacillation between the self and the other. Through its simultaneous presentation of the vernacular and uncanny, The Other North provides an opportunity to consider the effects of cultural, political, and national divisions, and their influence on individuals beyond geographic, political and psychological borders.
Symposium, The Other North, Saturday April 13th
On April 13th, Jones is joined by art historian Declan Long, and writer and journalist Eamonn McCann, amongst others, to contextualize the film within local and international narratives and attempt to unpack the complexities of therapeutic methods in relation theatrical gestures and social change. Throughout the day, we tease out the problematics of the relationship between the lived experiences of the conflicts and their representations in art, guided by experts from diverse fields and backgrounds.
Born in Dublin in 1978, Jesse Jones creates works that primarily take the form of film and video. She explores historical instances of communal culture and resistance that resonate with contemporary society and politics. Her practice uses devices such drive-in cinemas, film, music and performance in order to explore popular culture as a site of shared collective social consciousness. Jones has recently had solo-exhibitions at Artsonje Seoul, Spike Island, Bristol, The Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin, and REDCAT, Los Angeles, as well as projects at The New Museum, New York, and Serpentine Cinema, London. She is currently in the production phase of Prosperity, which is the artist’s largest project to date and consists of a multi-disciplinary collaborative public art commission in Dublin which aims to deconstruct the idea of prosperity in Ireland’s post boom economy.
CCA is generously supported by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland/The Lottery Fund, Northern Ireland Executive Supported by The Urban Regeneration Company Ilex, The Department for Social Development, City of Culture 2013, Caldwell & Robinson Solicitors, Arts & Business NI, and Crown Paints. The Other North has been additionally supported by The Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon, the British Council Northern Ireland, and the Henry Moore Foundation.
