UK

Synopsis

WHAT’S THE DAMAGE is a proposition and provocation, answering back to ongoing crises under white patriarchy, relaying and augmenting feelings and gestures of chronic unease, protest and dissent. Heather Phillipson’s summons and riposte storms in via menstrual blood, rising up against leadership circle-jerks, weeping vortexes, seared orang utans, animal-fat banknotes, and advancing supermoons, pizzas and drones.

Director's Statement

This video was made shortly after the USA Presidential Elections in which Donald Trump came to power, which followed on from the UK Brexit vote to leave Europe. I felt alive in a state of emergency and my work likewise. I couldn't - didn't want to - ignore it. But how is it possible to go on - to continue to make - in this context? What alternatives - critical position/s, hope - could I propose? What if strength were formed not from (predominantly white) patriarchal dominion but from collective waste, bodily uprising, protest by the most fundamental means (voices and excretions)?

Everything in this video - soundtrack, images, words, recordings - is made solo - in my studio, on my computer, without a budget. It is a form of collage, composed of cultural detritus. I made it expediently, and with a sense of urgency.

Director's Biography

Heather Phillipson works across video, sculpture, music, drawing and text. Her current and upcoming projects include the Fourth Plinth, Trafalgar Square in 2020, a major commission for Art on the Underground’s flagship site at Gloucester Road, an online commission for the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and a solo show at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art (all 2018). Recent solo projects include: Screens Series, New Museum, New York; Whitechapel Gallery, London; Frieze Projects New York; 32nd São Paolo Biennale, Brazil; Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, the 14th Istanbul Biennial and Performa, New York. Phillipson is also an award-winning poet and has published four volumes of poetry. She was named a Next Generation Poet in 2014 and received Poetry magazine's Friends of Literature prize in 2016. In 2016, she received the Film London Jarman Award. Her short films have been screened widely at festivals and on Channel 4 and BBC2 television.

Filmography:
2018 WOW
2018 STATUS EPILEPTICUS
2017 OF VIOLENCE
2017 WHAT'S THE DAMAGE
2017 EVERYTHING SLAPPED & CANDIED & OPENING
2016 TRUE TO SIZE
2016 100% OTHER FIBRES
2015 COMMISERATIONS!
2015 FINAL DAYS
2014 PUT THE GOAT IN THE GOAT BOAT
2014 SERIOUS TRACTION
2013 SPLASHY PHASINGS
2013 IMMEDIATELY AND FOR A SHORT TIME BALLOONS WEAPONS TOO-TIGHT CLOTHING WORRIES OF ALL KINDS
2013 HA!AH!
2012 A IS TO D WHAT E IS TO H
2011 ZERO-POINT GARBAGE MATTE
2011 CATASTROPHICEPHALECONOMY
2011 TORSO PORTIONS
2011 WELL, THIS IS EMBARRASSING
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Cast & Crew

Directed by: Heather Phillipson

Written by: Heather Phillipson

Produced by: Heather Phillipson

Cinematography: Heather Phillipson

Editing: Heather Phillipson

Production Design: Heather Phillipson

Original Score: Heather Phillipson

Sound Design: Heather Phillipson

Animation: Heather Phillipson

Cast: Heather Phillipson ((all voices))

Nominations and Awards

  • European Short Film 2018