Clare Langan The Ice Above, the Fire Below, and other works, 2007-2009

Langan's films are a contemporary meditation on the Romantic Landscape in its entire beautiful, haunting and melancholic splendor. This major exhibition includes the Irish premier of her latest work, a three screen presentation of The Ice Above, the Fire Below.

The Ice Above, the Fire Below is a film of the sea, shot using a high speed digital Phantom Camera. The camera enables the use of extreme slow motion not possible with a regular camera. The film creates a wall of water in the space emulating the effect of being in the middle of, or surrounded by a tidal wave. Projecting the videos in a gallery situates the viewer in an immersive panoramic experience of sound and vision, something that would not be possible with a traditional cinema setting.

Traces of Caspar David Friedrich's images may be found in the immaculately framed and dramatic staging of violence, deluge and the constant threat of man's obliteration. Some of the film scenes' are generated through the construction of miniature scenes onto which disaster is then unleashed. Langan, a very gifted film maker skilled in both traditional and technological means, takes us on a journey through multiple geographical locations both real and constructed, allowing us access to dreamlike visions of the potential chaos that exists in nature and in our cinematic memories.

Clare Langan

Clare Langan studied Fine Art at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin and with a Fulbright Scholarship, completed a film workshop at New York University in 1992. She is based in Dublin.

Her film Metamorphosis, 2007 won the Principle Prize at the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, Germany. In 2007 it was exhibited at the Lyon Biennale; Houldsworth Gallery, London; Loop, Barcelona; NCA Gallery, Tokyo; Pratt Art Gallery New York and the Miguel Marcos Gallery, Barcelona. In 2008 her work was exhibited in the Singapore Biennial. Langan will represent Ireland at Sounds and Visions, Art Film and Video from Europe, Museum of Modern Art, Tel Aviv in February 2009. Her latest work The Ice Above, the Fire Below was exhibited at Expo Zaragoza 2008, Spain.

In 2003 Langan presented A Film Trilogy at MoMA in New York and at the Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin. In 2002 she represented Ireland in the 25th Bienal de Sao Paulo, Brazil where Too dark for night was exhibited. The trilogy was exhibited together for the first time at The International 2002, Tate Liverpool for The Liverpool Biennial. She participated in the Glen Dimplex Artists' Award 2000 at The Irish Museum of Modern Art.

Clare Langan The Ice Above, the Fire Below, and other works, 2007-2009