Kirsten Adkins collaborated with artist Ana Rutter to produce a book and text which was exhibited as part of the Birmingham Museums at Night Project
The work contains reflections on events and stories; The extreme winter cold and the summer heat, an industrial dispute brought about as a result of changes to tea breaks.
With thanks to the tour guides and workers at Newman Brothers Coffin Works for the collected stories.
Kirsten Adkins is an artist and film maker who works mainly with film and photography. She has a background in teaching and also worked for ten years as a producer and director for the BBC and other television companies. Kirsten Adkins is currently studying for a PHD at Wolverhampton University. She completed her MA at Birmingham City University. Film and photography excerpts by Kirsten Adkins and collaborators including Ana Rutter
A three minute excerpt from a twenty minute film and sound piece in which I contest representations of violence, power and gender. The film excerpt originally accompanied a performed monologue, a summary of which follows:
In a 2019 reality television show, SAS recruit, Louise challenged SAS recruit, Nathan to a fight. Nathan punched Louise in the head. The task was described as an exercise in equality. In 2016 women were invited to take up what the British Ministry of Defence called, ‘close with and kill the enemy’ fighting roles. The MOD said these changes demonstrated equal opportunities. In the same year the cultural theorist Victoria Basham wrote, ‘the relationship between armed force and masculinities is possibly the most salient and cross-culturally stable aspect of gendered politics.’ But are these representations either stable or entrenched?
This piece outlines an interdisciplinary enquiry, that critiques the ways in which ideologies of equality and inclusion are co-opted for the promotion of military force. It further considers themes of power and subordination and an associated eroticisation of male and female bodies with a context of state controlled violence.
Thanks to dancers Frankie Hickman and Robert Hemming and to photographer Geoff Ward
A single channel film projection devised in collaboration with physical theatre director, Lisa Cleaver
A series of movements explore physical and spatial relationships in conflict. The work focusses on themes of gesture, body and cycles of aggression. Aggressive and defensive actions are continually repeated to the point where it becomes unclear whether the viewer is witnessing acts of play, violence, harm or care. Both bodies are seized and transformed by this forceful, cyclical exchange.
Film loop devised in collaboration with physical theatre director, Lisa Cleaver
Grab First Grip Firmly is a game between two players. Player 1 is instructed to grab first. Player 2 is instructed to grip firmly. Neither player knows what the other is trying to do. Neither really understands what they are doing themselves. They don’t know when to stop and they don’t know how to win.
This looped sequence plays on the ambiguities of the adversarial encounter. There is aggression in this playful exchange, but the violence can be found in the exertion of both bodies. The dominant force is therefore found outside of or beyond the control of the combatants
Film devised in collaboration with physical theatre director, Lisa Cleaver
A series of movements explore physical and spatial relationships in conflict. The work focusses on themes of gesture, body and cycles of aggression. Aggressive and defensive actions are continually repeated to the point where it becomes unclear whether the viewer is witnessing acts of play, violence, harm or care. Both bodies are seized and transformed by this forceful, cyclical exchange.
Performers: Joanne Tremarco and Chris Murray
Camera: Geoff Ward
