Who Is Shortlisted for the Jarman Award 2023?

Sophie Koko Gate, Hotel Kalura (2021). Digital still. Courtesy the artist and Film London.

By Sam Gaskin – 8 June 2023, London

Film London today revealed the six artists shortlisted for the 2023 Film London Jarman Award.

Those in the running for the £10,000 prize are Ayo Akingbade, Andrew Black, Julianknxx, Sophie Koko Gate, Karen Russo, and Rehana Zaman.

In their videos, Akingbade visits a Guinness brewery in Nigeria, Julianknxx returns to his birthplace of Freetown in Sierra Leone, and Black scopes out the Menwith Hill surveillance base.

Zaman engages a herbalist and a financial services regulator to analyse Scrooge McDuck and cryptocurrency, Gate’s animations mix angst and desire, while Russo conjures an eerie occult atmosphere from 20th-century architecture and artefacts.

Prize juror Matthew Barrington said, ‘The poetic, socially conscious, and singular nature of much of the work connects both to the legacies of previous awardees as well as that of Derek Jarman, and his large body of politically engaged work.’

The winner will be announced in late November at the Barbican Centre, London. —[O]

Jarman Award 2023 Video Clips

Ako Akingbade, The Fist (2022) (excerpt). © Ayo Akingbade. Courtesy the artist and Film London.

Andrew Black, On Clogger Lane(2023) (excerpt). Courtesy the artist and Film London.

Julianknxx, On Freedom of Movement (wi de muv)(2022) (teaser). Courtesy the artist and Film London.

Sophie Koko Gate, Hotel Kalura(2021) (excerpt). Courtesy the artist and Film London.

Karen Russo, Junkerhaus(2021) (excerpt). Courtesy the artist and Film London.

Rehana Zaman, Alternative Economies(2021) (excerpt). Courtesy the artist and Film London.

Main image: Sophie Koko Gate, Hotel Kalura (2021). Digital still. Courtesy the artist and Film London.

Sam Gaskin Sam Gaskin has covered contemporary art for over a decade, mostly from Shanghai, China.