Ben Rivers

Ben Rivers (born in 1972) is an artist and experimental filmmaker based in London. His work has been shown in many film festivals and galleries around the world and has won numerous awards. His work ranges from themes about exploring unknown wilderness territories to candid and intimate portrayals of real-life subjects.

Life and career

Rivers's 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. Rivers uses near-antique cameras and hand develops the 16 mm film, which shows the evidence of the elements it has been exposed to – the materiality of this medium forming part of the narrative.^[1]

Rivers's first feature-length film, Two Years at Sea, was presented in September 2011 in the Orizzonti section at the 68th Venice International Film Festival and won the FIPRESCI International Critics prize.

His second feature, A Spell To Ward Off The Darkness,^[2] was made in collaboration with Ben Russell and premiered at Locarno Film Festival 2013. The feature films are distributed in UK by SODA Pictures^[3] and Cinema Guild^[4] and KimStim^[5] in North America

Rivers is represented by Kate MacGarry Gallery, London.

Shows

"Nought to Sixty" ICA, London, 2008.^[6]
"A World Rattled of Habit" - solo show, A Foundation, Liverpool, 2009.^[7]
"Slow Action" - solo show, Gallery TPW, Toronto 2011^[8] and Matt’s Gallery, London 2011.^[9]
"Heather and Ivan Morison, Ben Rivers and David Thorpe" - Hepworth Wakefield 2012.^[10]
"Ah, Liberty!" - solo show, Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin 2013.^[11]
"Fable" - solo show, Temporary Gallery, Cologne 2014.^[12]
"Things" - solo show, Kate MacGarry Gallery, London 2014.^[13]

Artist-in-focus screenings and retrospectives include Courtisane Festival;^[14] Pesaro International Film Festival; London Film Festival; Tirana Film Festival; Punto de Vista^[15] Pamplona; and Karlovy Vary International Film Festival^[16]

Awards

2007: London Artists Film and Video Award.
2008: Vauxhall Collective Commission.
2009: Film London Artist's Moving Image Network production.
2010: Shortlisted for the Jarman Award.^[17]
2011: Shortlisted for the Jarman Award.^[17]
2010: Paul Hamlyn Award for Artists.^[18]
2011: Baloise Art Prize, Art Basel.^[19]
2012: Robert Gardner film award.^[20]

Filmography

Old Dark House (2003)
We the People (2004)
The Hyrcynium Wood (2005)
The Bomb with a Man in his Shoe (2005)
This Is My Land (2006)
Astika (2006)
The Coming Race (2006)
Terror! (2006)
Greenhouse (2007)
Dove Coup (2007)
House (2007)
Ah, Liberty! (2008)
Sørdal (2008)
Origin of the Species (2008)
A World Rattled of Habit (2008)
May Tomorrow Shine The Brightest Of All Your Many Days As It Will Be Your Last (2009)
I Know Where I'm Going (2009)
Slow Action (2010)
Two Years at Sea (2011)
The Creation As We Saw It (2012)
Phantoms of a Libertine (2012)
A Spell to Ward Off the Darkness (2013)
Things (2014)

References