Pleased to announce that Eelyn Lee's new moving image project, 'Monster' has been selected by the Barbican to be developed during a 5-day lab in their Pit Theatre next month. Subsequently, the Arts Council England have offered their support in funding the project through their Grants for the Arts strand.
‘Monster’ is a five-day exploratory lab, exploring new ways of making moving image content through processes of devising and improvisation.
By interrogating notions of ‘demons and fear’ Eelyn will collaborate with a group of artists and performers to create a monster story set in a fictional place along the Thames estuary.
The results will be shared with an audience in the Barbican Cinema, hosted by film curator, Gareth Evans and be further developed next year in a real estuary setting where Eelyn aims to produce a long-form moving image work.
The lab will take place 1st - 5th December, 2014 The showcase event is Thurs 11th Dec at 4.30 - 6.00pm. If you would like to attend please e.mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The Creative Connections display at the National Portrait Gallery, featuring new work by Eelyn Lee has been extended for a week. The last day to see, An Ealing Trilogy, an 8-minute projected film installation is Sunday 21st September.
The display has proven very popular with visitors over the summer, with an estimated 30,000 people viewing the work since the opening on 20th June.
Paul Canoville with Desmond, a student from Brentside High School
Whilst working on the Creative Connections commission at the National Portrait Gallery in collaboration with Brentside High School, artist Eelyn Lee was keen to include a portrait of someone with links to the school in the final display. With notable alumni from neighbouring schools already in the Collection, such as Peter Crouch and Steve McQueen there was an obvious gap to be filled.
Brentside does have a significant former student, Paul Canoville the first black footballer to play for Chelsea in 1982. Canoville suffered a great deal of racism both on and off the pitch, and injury forced him in take early retirement. He has since written his autobiography Black and Blue and gives motivational talks to young people.
Eelyn is pleased to announce that a photographic portrait of Paul Canoville by Hugh Hastings was acquired especially for the display and his image now sits in the National Portrait Gallery's Collection as a just acknowledgement for his contributions to British life and culture.
Eelyn has written a powerful piece about the significance of this acquisition in her guest blog for the National Portrait Gallery. Read it here.
Four 90 second films made by students on this year's BFI Film Academy at the Barbican will be screening on Wed 21st May 5pm, Barbican Cinema 3.
Eelyn Lee developed a fast track course for 18 aspiring young filmmakers, the level of which was very high. Eelyn set a challenge to re-create and then re-imagine a scene from two seminal British films, Kes and the Third Man. The results are four very different and imaginative takes on life and death including a sci fi, a black comedy, a monologue and an experimental art film.
If you would like to attend please e.mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to receive an invitation.
Artist Eelyn Lee and a group of students from Brentside High School in Ealing are to create a film installation inspired by famous figures from the local area to go on display in the National Portrait Gallery this summer. The Year 10 GCSE Art students are to work with artist filmmaker Eelyn Lee and National Portrait Gallery staff in a series of workshops that will explore portraits in the Gallery’s Collection of inspirational people from the young people’s local area.
‘It's a great opportunity to be working with the National Portrait Gallery and its incredible collection. As an east Londoner, I am looking forward to discovering this west London borough through the achievements of its people, especially with young people as my guides.’ Eelyn Lee
Through the workshops, the young people and Eelyn will research the lives and achievements of thirty influential figures, including Charlie Chaplin, Ada Lovelace and Gurinder Chadha, all of whom have links with the borough of Ealing as well as portraits in the National Portrait Gallery Collection. The finished film installation will be created by Eelyn and the students in response to the research, and will explore the themes of vision, creativity and endeavour. The film will go on public display alongside the portraits that inspired it for three months from June 2014.
The initiative forms the second part of a four-year participatory arts project, Creative Connections, which is led by the National Portrait Gallery’s Learning department and is designed to extend the Gallery’s work engaging young people with portraiture.
Video installation, An Ealing Trilogy returns to the borough it was inspired by for two weeks in October. The film will be projected in the studio gallery at Pitzhanger Manor from 4th - 18th October. Eelyn Lee who made the film in collaboration with Brentside High School says,
'After a successful run at the National Portrait Gallery it's great to be showing the film in Ealing at a location that features heavily in the film. The Pitzhanger Manor Gallery is an amazing space and provides an opportunity for the work to be seen on a large scale.'
An Ealing Trilogy was commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery and will be projected on a loop at Pitzhanger Manor from 4th - 18th Oct. Check for opening times here.
Eelyn Lee will be overseeing the delivery of the Barbican BFI Film Academy for the second year running. Eelyn has developed a creative approach to devising 90 second micro shorts with compelling narratives. Working alongside long-term collaborator, Winstan Whitter, Eelyn will guide students through a fast-track, hands-on introduction to filmmaking.
If you are aged 15-19 and would like to take part in this 12-week course, apply through the Barbican's website to sign-up for the taster session on Sat 4th October.
Artist filmmaker Eelyn Lee will be showing a new piece of moving image work at the National Portrait Gallery, London this summer. Commissioned by the gallery to work in collaboration with a group of young people from Brentisde High School, Eelyn ran a series of workshops over a four month period to develop content for this 7 minute single-screen projection.
An Ealing Trilogy is a response to portraits of people in the gallery's collection who have links to the borough of Ealing, which include Charlie Chaplin, Freddie Mercury, Dusty Springfield, recent Oscar-winner, Steve McQueen and the man who invented ways to make mauve, William Perkin.
Early on in the process, Eelyn identified three themes that seemed to sum up the achievements and characteristics of this group of 18 inpiring people. Endeavour, creativity and vision are explored in a trilogy of slow moving narrative portraits which reference constructed photography, allegorical painting and cinematic forms to create a powerful and engaging piece of work.
An Ealing Trilogy can be seen alongside the collection of portraits from 20th June - 21st September. Eelyn will giving a talk about the display and her work at 19.30 on 20th June as part of Late Shift. More details here.
In the lead up to the opening of the Creative Connections exhibition on 20th June, the National Portrait Gallery are running a weekly Instagram challenge inspired by portraits of people in the gallery who have links to the borough of Ealing. The idea came from Eelyn Lee's original proposal for her commission to create a piece of moving image work with year 10 students from Brentside High School.
The first challenge [above] was created by Yousuf and inspired by William Perkin who invented the process for making the colour mauve using coal tar which was first produced in a factory in Greenford.
Check the Creative Connection blog for the next challenge and get invovled using the hashtag #ealingconnections
Since October last year Eelyn has been running the BFI Film Academy at the Barbican Centre, training aspiring 16-19 year old filmmakers. The course has attracted some highly motivated and talented young people from across London.
Eelyn has worked closely with the Creative Learning department at the Barbican to design an exciting, fast track introduction to the film production process. We have been looking at British films including Kes and The Third Man to inspire ideas for 90 second micro shorts. The four films written and produced by the students will be screened at the Barbican in March and submitted to film festivals internationally.
Eelyn has been working alongside her long-term collaborators, cinematographer Winstan Whitter and editor Francis Morgan-Giles to deliver the programme.
Image: Production Still from 'The Feral Man' courtesy of Ben Grady, student on the course
Wednesday, 29 January 2025 Eelyn has been commissioned to make a new piece of moving image work, to be exhibited at the Richmond Arts and Ideas Festival, 13-29 June, 2025; São Paulo Biennial, Sept, 2025, and the Karachi Biennial, Oct 2026. Building on her research and work made along the Thames Estuary in 2016, Eelyn will continue her exploration of the tidal Thames as a... Read More...
Thursday, 14 November 2024 An illustrated discussion with artist Eelyn Lee and writer-researcher, Dr Yen Ooi about their ongoing collaboration –a call and response creative dialogue between artist and writer. Drawing on migratory energies and ancestral stories, their work creates new orientations, shaped by East and Southeast Asian [ESEA] diasporic experiences. Book FREE... Read More...
Thursday, 15 August 2024 Ancestral Futures 源流之後 is a processional street performance in honour of the first recorded Chinese people in Sheffield –a group of magicians on tour from China who performed at the Whitsuntide Festival, 1855. On 31st May, 1855, the lead magician, Teh Kwei 德貴, buried his 5-week old baby in a Sheffield graveyard.... Read More...
Paul Canoville with Desmond, a student from Brentside High School
