David Blandy

This work builds on a series which uses the form of online video tutorials to explore ideas around patterns in nature and existence. Each of them begins with Blandy giving a step-by-step tutorial explaining how to make a short video about a specific subject, only using the tools available via a computer – through the Internet and video editing software to video games.

‘Finding Fanon’ is the first part in a series of works by artists Larry Achiampong and David Blandy; inspired by the lost plays of Frantz Fanon, (1925-1961) a politically radical humanist whose practice dealt with the psychopathology of colonisation and the social and cultural consequences of decolonisation. In the film, the two artists negotiate Fanon’s ideas, examining the politics of race, racism and the post-colonial, and how these societal issues affect their relationship. Their conflict is played out through a script that melds found texts and personal testimony, transposing their drama to a junkyard houseboat at an unspecified time in the future. Navigating the past, present and future, Achiampong and Blandy question the promise of globalisation, recognising its impact on their own heritage.

'Finding Fanon 2' collides art-house cinema with digital culture’s Machinima, resulting in a work that explores the post-colonial condition from inside a simulated environment – the Grand Theft Auto 5 in-game video editor. This video work combines several stories, including how the artists’ familial histories relate to colonial history, an examination of how their relationship is formed through the virtual space, and thoughts on the implications of the post-human condition. The Finding Fanon series is inspired by the lost plays of Frantz Fanon, (1925-1961) a politically radical humanist whose practice dealt with the psychopathology of colonisation and the social and cultural consequences of decolonisation. Throughout the series, Achiampong and Blandy negotiate Fanon’s ideas, examining the politics of race, racism and decolonisation, and how these societal issues affect our relationship amidst an age of new technology, popular culture and globalisation.

"Finding Fanon Part Three" is inspired by the lost plays of Frantz Fanon (1925–1961), a radical humanist, psychiatrist and writer whose work explored the mental distress caused by colonisation and the consequences of decolonisation. Achiampong and Blandy re-interpret Fanon’s ideas, and how the politics of race affect relationships in an age of digital technology and globalisation.

A young girl and her father travel to Hiroshima, visiting its gardens, shops, museums, cafes. Across this journey, their family’s past—and its overwhelming intertwinement with the history of the city’s atomic bombing—unfolds at the alternated pace of apocalyptic Manga imagery and serene images of father and daughter’s wanders.

A young girl and her father travel to Hiroshima, visiting its gardens, shops, museums, cafes. Across this journey, their family’s past—and its overwhelming intertwinement with the history of the city’s atomic bombing—unfolds at the alternated pace of apocalyptic Manga imagery and serene images of father and daughter’s wanders.