Bold Writing | Irish Artist's Film Index

Bold Writing

Bernie Masterson


Artist's biography

Bernie Masterson

Synopsis

Bold Writing is a collaboration with writer and poet Máighréad Medbh. It is a response in poetry and visual art to a copybook in Vere Foster's 'Bold Writing' or ‘Civil Service’ series, found in Mountjoy Prison in the late 1990’s. The video work explores the paradox of the colonial position, in which the subject population is allowed freedom only within the prevailing mindset. The incongruity of a beggar, in prison for petty theft, learning a beautiful hand script while writing that she 'must deserve before [she] can desire' is highlighted by the image of a hand copying the proverbs, but rendering them as dialogic anagrams.

Details
Title

Bold Writing

Year

2016

Form

Short

Key phrases

essay, imperialism, subjugation, dispossession, injustice, remembering, collective consciousness, nature of identity

Language

English

Duration

00:07:18

Original formats

Digital HD

Aspect ratio

16:9

Colour

Colour

Sound

Yes

Supported by Kildare County Council Arts Service, the Arts Council of Ireland and Visual Artists Ireland.
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