Belfast-based artist filmmaker Seamus Harahan has been announced as the winner of the Jarman Art Award during a ceremony at the Whitechapel Gallery in London, receiving £10,000 and a commission for Channel 4’s short-form arts strand Random Acts. Filmed on inexpensive, hand-held equipment, Harahan’s films and video works capture the incidental nature of urban environments and street-life. The artist represented Northern Ireland at the 2005 Venice Biennale.
Harahan was selected from a shortlist of six, which also included Adam Chodzko, Gail Pickering, Alia Syed, Bedwyr Williams and Andrea Luka Zimmerman, who exceptionally all received a commission for Channel 4’s Random Acts. Launching alongside the award was the first edition of the Jules Wright Prize for Female Creative Technician, a £5,000 prize offered to cinematographer Noski Deville for her significant contribution to artists’ films, which include works by Steve McQueen, Isaac Julien and Alia Syed.
30 November 2015.
