Bingo (Single Channel Video, 2mins 37secs, 2007)

Bingo documents the unusual social event of a ‘Drive-in Bingo’ which is held weekly in the village of Ballymitty in County Wexford. The ‘Drive-in Bingo’ developed after the introduction of the smoking ban as it allows participants to partake in the game whilst smoking in their car. This short fixed-frame video work focuses on a group of cars in a car park. However, the normality of the situation is obscured by the sound of a bingo caller who slowly calls out numbers over a loudspeaker in a strong local accent. Although comedic, there is an underlying sadness to the spectacle as the social element of bingo has retreated to the solitary confines of the car.

My Grandfather was taken by the Fairies is the title of a six-part recording that centres on the artist’s mother, along with six different members of his family, relating superstitious accounts concerning other family members and neighbours. Each of the fixed-frame works were recorded around the artist’s mother’s kitchen table between October 2005 and August 2006 in rural County Wexford. In each recording the camera moves clockwise around the table capturing not only the imaginary world of the stories but also the physical space of the small kitchen. Although intangible, these stories are used to map out a physical world around the Fortune household. This single channel work was produced for the Galway Arts Centre screening and is derived a larger six-channel video installation.

The Banshee Lives in the Handball Alley is a short compilation derived from a larger collection of stories produced in collaboration with artist Aileen Lambert, in three primary schools in Limerick City as part of the Cuisle Poetry Festival and Young EV+A in 2005. Like so much of Fortune’s work, the camera is used here to collect and re-present folkloric superstitions and beliefs. He does not use folklore to service nostalgia, but instead attempts to highlight how folklore is constantly added to, and how it is intrinsically linked to both memory and occasion, fiction and interpretation. This is evident in this work, as the urban environment in which these children live is negotiated and charted by a mixture of ancient folkloric stories which have been intertwined with personal accounts and contemporary urban myths. Ultimately, this work is a celebration of the storyteller and how folklore is constantly added to by boundless imagination of the storytellers themselves.

My Grandfather was taken by the Fairies (Single Channel Video, 12mins, 2006)

The Banshee Lives in the Handball Alley (Single Channel Video, 8mins, 2005)

Since the destruction of the signal cabin in Rosslare Harbour train station in 1997, a group of men have been employed to wait and manually signal trains entering and exiting the station. This work, made with the assistance of Iarnród Éireann worker Brian Culleton, follows the activities of two of these signallers over the duration of one day. This practice, which has been maintained for over ten years, will finally come to a halt in 2008 due to the installation of a new computerised signalling system in the newly developed Rosslare Harbour train station. This work was one of ten works commissioned by Wexford County Councils Per Cent for Art Programme in 2007.

A Job of Waiting (Single Channel Video, 10mins 58secs, 2008)

The Sinnott Horde is a celebration of the ordinary. The fixed-frame video work focuses on whelk fisherman Toss Sinnott from Rosslare Harbour, Co. Wexford and his capacity to re-design and re-invent redundant objects for further practical use. The work, which involves only one take, sees Toss describe to the artist in a relaxed, informal and performative manner the slight differences between each whelk pot design. The Sinnott Horde is also a celebration of human creativity and our ability to create and re-invent out of necessity and function. This work was made with the assistance of Bernie Mullen and is one of ten works commissioned by Wexford County Councils Per Cent for Art Programme in 2007.

The Sinnott Horde (Single Channel Video, 15 mins 23secs, 2008)

Looking GlassA selection of Video Worksby Michael Fortune

22nd April to 3rd May, 2008

Gallery 3,Galway Arts Centre47 Dominick Street, GalwayPhone: 00353 (0)91 565 886 Email: info@galwayartscentre.ieWeb: www.galwayartscentre.ie

From Tuesday 22nd of April Galway Arts Centre presents 'Looking Glass’, a video programme featuring a

selection of recently produced video works by Michael Fortune. This screening, which runs in conjunction with the Cúirt International Festival of Literature programme, focuses on the elements of language and time and the relationship which they have with ritual, belief and the everyday.

For the Galway Arts Centre show, Fortune has compiled a body of video works which explore the circumstantial boundaries between art and culture, folklore and interpretation, and fact and fiction. Through a variety of techniques and approaches, Fortune uses the video camera as a tool to decode and re-code these activities, and by doing so exposes the areas where these boundaries overlap and collide.

In all the works the camera remains static, with editing only ever employed out of necessity rather than luxury. This technique provides the viewer with an unhindered and individual viewpoint into each work. Although referring to the forms of documentary, all evidence of the documenter or narrator is removed. Fortune’s practice revolves around the collection of material. His video works are not scripted or storyboarded, instead he generates material out of the relationships and experiences he develops with the people and circumstances he encounters.

Fortune lives and works in County Wexford. He received his MA in Scriptwriting from Dun Laoghaire School of Film, Dublin and BA in Fine Art from Limerick School of Art and Design. Recently he presented solo shows in Triskel (Cork), Wexford Arts Centre (Wexford) and G126 (Galway). Group shows have included 7000IS (Iceland), EV+A (Limerick), House Projects (Dublin & London), Tulca (Galway), Infusion (Limerick), Frieze (Dublin), Vague But True (Denmark), From here to Betweenity (Bristol), Castle of Imagination (Poland) and Conflict & Resolution (Donegal).

Since the beginning of 2008 he has presented works in FAF@The Lab (Dublin), Elysium Gallery (Swansea) and SWGC (Newfoundland). In the coming months he will present a solo show in the Garter Lane Arts Centre (Waterford) whilst presenting works in group events such as The Edinburgh Film Festival (Scotland), Transhift (USA), Art Video Screenings (Sweden) and The Mid-Ulster Film Festival (Tyrone). In January ’08 he launched Departures and Arrivals, a collection of ten new video works commissioned by Wexford County Council. He is currently undertaking a Per Cent for Art Project for Mayo County Council and a new body of writing supported by an Arts Council Projects Award.

The Sinnott Horde (Single Channel Video, 15mins 23secs, 2008)

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