Books are not just one of the ways that artists can experiment, get across their ideas and showcase their work. Artists also use film and video. At the end of this month HOME is hosting the next Artist Film Weekender (Fri 30 November – Sun 2 December, 2018) which showcases and explores ‘wildly alternative approaches to film and video’. First up on the Friday will be Make Me Up, a film by artist Rachel Maclean where there will also be a Q&A with both Rachel and HOME producer, Bren O’Callaghan. Rachel’s work is well known to us here at HOME as she had an exhibition here in 2016/17, and we produced the book, Wot u :-) about? alongside. On the Saturday is Brian Benson’s The Wonderful World of Cousin Wonderlette, and on the Sunday is the screening of works from artists highlighted in the Jarman Awards 2018, with an introduction by Maggie Ellis, Head of FLAMIN (Film London Artists’ Moving Image Network). Click on the above links to find out more, but we highly recommend you come to these screenings.

HOME also has a unique project for training, developing, producing, distributing and exhibiting artist film with their HOME Artist Film. One of their latest productions is the highly acclaimed Lek and the Dogs by artist Andrew Kötting – a film inspired by a true story of a boy, Ivan Mishukov, who left his apartment aged 4 and was then adopted by a wild pack of dogs. We’re really pleased to announce that the DVD of Lek and the Dogs will be released in December 2018, so watch this space. Kötting produced one of the first HOME Artist Films, Swandown (2012), about his swan-shaped pedalo Hastings-to-Hackney trip with writer Iain Sinclair – both an odyssey and a pedal marathon rolled into one. In early 2019 (11 January) the next HOME Artist film will also go on general release. This one by director Gabrielle Brady – her first feature length – is entitled Island of Hungry Ghosts, a documentary film about a trauma counsellor helping those migrants trying to get to Australia, set on the remote Christmas Island. It has already won lots of awards, so we highly recommend you go and see it.

Then there are films about artists, or documentaries about their lives and/or works, and we distribute several of these on our list: Rachel Whiteread won the Turner Prize in 1993 for her sculpture, House, and we have Artangel’s DVD documenting the project – a transformation of an ordinary home into an ambitious and contentious artwork.

For Documenta 12 in 2007 Chinese artist Ai Weiwei invited 1001 Chinese citizens from all walks of life to Germany, to experience their own 28-day ‘Fairytale’. The DVD of the same name documents this whole process. According to Ai Weiwei, ‘This is a work I emotionally relate to. It grows and grows and it surprised me.’

In the Jef Cornelis: Summer of 1966 DVD the artist filmed those participating in that year’s Venice Biennale, depicting the exhibition as a closed space of community that was wrapped up in all its own conflicts and issues. On his return to Belgium he also visited the Lausanne Salon International – the precursor to Basel’s Art Fair that first opened in 1970.

Ever wanted to know more about Performance Art? This Artists Talking DVD presents five Performance artists (Chris Burden, Andrea Fraser, Gilbert & George, Paul McCarthy and Rikrit Tiravanjia) who speak about their work and discuss various topics and issues. With other DVDs in this same conversational series, they offer a really good way in to the different types of artworks, and are a great opportunity to listen to artists in conversation. So you may also be interested in these too: Art & Language DVD, Conceptual Art DVD, and the Pop Art DVD.

Then there is Parts of the World DVD. In 2016 artist Anthony Cragg had his first retrospective exhibition at Von der Heydt-Museum Wuppertal. Here in this DVD he documents his working processes, as he works in his studio, the filmmaker accompanying him along the way as he develops his ideas from his drawings to the final exhibit.

Or if you prefer, this DVD on American Pop Artist Claes Oldenburg follows his 3 year journey as he sets up his exhibitions at Mumok Vienna and Museum Ludwig, Cologne. His sculptures mostly take the form of everyday, banal objects but always contain the unexpected. Here the DVD offers an overview of Oldenburg’s artistic development from the 1950s through to the 1970s.

Finally, we have to mention Jeremy Deller’s Battle of Orgreave on DVD, filmed by Mike Figgis and produced by Artangel. One of our very best sellers, it documents Deller’s re-enactment of one of the most violent conflicts of the 1980s Miners’ Strikes. It also includes footage from the archival material of the actual event, plus interviews with people closely involved and effected at the time.

We love books, but we also love artist’s films and films about art /artists too. They are just another platform on which to explore art and they make a great addition to our ever-growing list of products. Browse our website further, as you may just find something that you didn’t know you were looking for.

Image credit: Make Me Up (2018) by Rachel Maclean