The Complex Seer is a presentation of recent work by Emily McFarland. The exhibition focuses on cinematic depictions of revolutionary action, borrowing its title from an essay by Martin Walsh that considers the relationship between Bertolt Brecht (the German playwright and theorist) and cinema.

The Complex Seer includes a video installation and wall based works that draw upon footage from a range of films, including the fiction/documentary Ice and La Chinoise, one of Jean-Luc Goddard’s most political works. These films were produced in the late 1960s and early 1970s at a time when countercultural activity dominated the media and political landscape. In different ways they portray groups of radical students and young people who conspire to effect the upheaval of mainstream society. The Complex Seer features works that use this imagery as a way of recoding the cinematic conventions of depicting revolutionary action, while also exploring the ways in which these conventions have become absorbed in today’s understandings of political change.

The Complex Seer  will be presented alongside Basic Communities / Soft People, an exhibition by work by Philipp Kremer.