Ben RIVERS
KP
The process of making a playground is the starting point for a reflection on the relationship between work and free-time, highlighting the hidden labour of the production of culture by following the construction of Condorelli¡¯s commission in South London. Jay Bernard wrote and recites the soundtrack.
After Work is a work that started as a playground creation project called ¡°Tools for Imagination¡± commissioned by the South London Gallery to artist Céline Condorelli in 2019. The process of creating a playground in the residence of the working class is to reflect on the relationship between work and leisure and to consider the meaning of labor behind cultural production. Therefore, the key word "work" in the title can be interpreted in various ways, such as artwork, play, job, and labor. Starting with British children's songs, from one camera to another, from play to production, the goal of this project is to take a closer look at the childhood, streets, and games that the playground tells us. On the screen, we see how tools are made in the process of digging, welding, and polishing. Ben Rivers explores the small gestures that occur in project work through encounters between poetry and images, between work and play, between cities and the world of adults and children.
Ben RIVERS
Ben Rivers studied Fine Art at Falmouth School of Art, initially in sculpture before moving into photography and super8 film. After his degree he taught himself 16mm filmmaking and hand-processing. His practice as a filmmaker treads a line between documentary and fiction. Often following and filming people who have in some way separated themselves from society, the raw film footage provides Rivers with a starting point for creating oblique narratives imagining alternative existences in marginal worlds.