Modernism, landscape and ancient mysticism

Associated media

The Whitechapel Gallery in east London is currently showing Jessica Warboys’ Pageant Roll (2012) (on until15 April 2013) as part of Artists’ Film International, a touring programme of international film, video and animation selected by 14 partner organizations across the world.

Referencing British modernism’s preoccupation with the power of landscape and ancient mysticism, Pageant Roll collages geometric shapes such as ellipses as hoops and squares in the form of monochrome paintings with shots of Cornish standing stones and brightly painted eggs. 

Through film, painting and performance, Warboys weaves together both tangible physical places and objects with abstract gesture and metaphor that allude to psychological spaces. In the work, this is heightened by an intermittent and unearthly soundtrack as the film loop plays forwards and backwards. 



Pageant Roll (2012) was commissioned and produced by dOCUMENTA (13).



Three new touring partners join Artists’ Film International in 2013: Centre for Contemporary Arts Afghanistan, Kabul, Afghanistan; KINOKINO Centre for Art and Film, Sandnes, Norway and Project 88, Mumbai, India.