Melanie Gilligan
During her residency Gilligan used the ICA as a base to develop a script through improvisations that used daily newspapers as their starting point.
18 - 24 May 2009, Upper Gallery
Writing provides the backbone for all of Melanie Gilligan's work. In her performances and videos actors deliver scripts that are by turns literary, evocative, humorous and political. These works blend narrative, dramatic and informative modes in order to communicate complex histories and ideas.
During her residency Gilligan used the ICA as a base to develop a script and to workshop this script with an actress, filming key elements of this process in different locations around the building. The text took form through improvisations that used daily newspapers as their starting point, and also revolved around the notion of caricature, particularly its political manifestations in the 18th and 19th Century.
The footage filmed by Gilligan will be used as part of a video work, to be screened at the ICA on completion.