John (2006)

Artist Ian Charlesworth’s ‘John’ series uses uses actors to re-stage representations of the North in order to make apparent the relationship between the subject and the photographer, and the problematic aspects of documentary, specifically the portrayal of Belfast’s urban youth in both the media and social documentary.

“In video work ‘John’ the dialogic relationship between the young actor and his agent is played out, or rather acted out, on stage. The viewer is left wondering whether the actor is playing a role that is given to him by a voice off camera, or they are playing themselves. So too the agent, he may only be a voice off camera, but he is also playing the role of ‘an agent’, whose only direction was to make him ‘act tough’.

Certain stories come out of the encounter that helps to carry the narrative along, in particular that they were all ‘discovered’ by producers in Belfast boxing clubs, and in the past they were cast to play young Belfast characters of either side of the political divide. As they talk about the roles that they have played, they begin to act them out, and we begin to see that the space between the actors and their characters becomes smaller. The incessant voice ‘off camera’ keeps coming back at them, though in a comforting manner.

From the stories that develop the viewer gets glimpses of their daily lives and of their experiences of the ‘troubles’, or rather because they are so young, of the sectarian violence that has followed on from the ‘troubles’ in recent years. It seems that it is for this ‘Belfast experience’, that these youth’s are often cast, in order to play themselves. There are no joyful song and dance routines for these kids; there will be no ‘South Pacific’ or ‘Oklahoma’.

Of course it has to be remembered that the youth is acting throughout the encounter and that the agent was told to make him ‘act tough’. The viewer also has to be constantly be aware that they are acting, and that even the gaps between the characterisations are loaded moments as the actors were told that the cameras were continuously rolling. The result is an ambiguity as to whether we can in fact see the ‘real’ subject, or we are being given a characterisation.” (1)

This work was purchased for the Golden Thread Gallery Collection with the support of the Ampersand Foundation.

Ian Charlesworth is a contemporary visual artist, currently living and working in Russia. In 1992, he graduated from De Montfort University with a BA (Hons) in Fine Art. He continued his studies at the University of Ulster, where he undertook a Master’s in Fine Art in 1998 and completed his PhD in 2006. He spent a year as a Fellow at the British school in Rome (2005-2006).

In addition to his practice as an artist he has taught art at a number of academic departments In the UK and Ireland, including at University Campus Suffolk and the University of Ulster. Since 2012, he has been Course Leader of Fine Art at the British Higher School of Art and Design in Moscow, Russia. He has exhibited both nationally and internationally at venues such as La Caixa Foundation, Madrid (2011), the Smart Project Space, Amsterdam (2009), The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington (2008) and The Sainsbury Centre, University of East Anglia (2007). His work was shown in the 2005 Venice Biennale.

(1) https://bhsad_mediadesign.tilda.ws/iancharlesworth#project