About
Joanna Byrne (she/her) is a Leeds/Bradford-based artist filmmaker who takes material, performative, collaborative and sustainable approaches to creating moving image. She works with analogue film in a tactile way - incorporating alternative photographic processes, hand-manipulation and physical traces of her body into the work. She performs with live projections and sound to create immersive expanded cinema experiences.
Byrne is interested in the therapeutic and transformational potential of experimental, participatory film practices - connecting us to each other, to communities, shared stories and Planet Earth. In 2024 she gained a place on the Leeds Creative Labs x Bradford Producing Hub research programme, collaborating with Evgenia Ilyinskaya, Associate Professor at the Institute of Geophysics and Tectonics, University of Leeds. Their R&D explored the study of volcanic activity and effects on local populations, air pollution, local botany and the sharing of community knowledge through sustainable and alternative photographic processes. In 2023 she won third place in the Scott Creative Arts Foundation Emerging Artist Award, and was awarded an A-N artist’s development bursary in 2022 to develop new processes in sustainable analogue 16mm filmmaking.
She writes about art and film, runs accessible filmmaking workshops for people from all walks of life, and teaches on BA Filmmaking at Leeds Arts University.
joanna.byrne (at) ymail.com
CURRENT:
Early films and live analogue projections featured in the experimental music documentary on Vibracathedral Orchestra - Enormous Yes (2024) dir. Stewart Morgan Hajdukiewicz - now distributed by New York Filmmakers’ Cooperative.
Leeds Creative Labs X Bradford Producing Hub - Collaborative R & D project imaging volcanic activity and air pollution using alternative photographic processes.
tectum argenti now distributed by New York Filmmakers’ Cooperative
Commission: Martin Thomas Memorial Artwork, University of Leeds
In Search of the Giant’s Wife: Herstories of Rombald’s Moor: collaboration with Eve Miller partially funded by Bradford Arts and Heritage Grants.
Screen Kiss featured in Analog Cookbook #7
‘Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun: BooBoo’s Exploding Plastic Inevitable’, book chapter on the cult film Spectres of the Spectrum (1999) in Craig Baldwin: Avant to Live! eds Brett Kashmere and Steve Polta, co-published by Incite: A Journal of Experimental Media & San Francisco Cinematheque.
Qualifications
2011: MPhil (practice-based research) in Artist’s Film, School of Contemporary Art and Graphic Design, Leeds Metropolitan University.
2002: BA (Hons) Graphic Fine Art, University of East London – 2:1.
SELECTED SCREENINGS AND EXHIBITIONS
Upcoming in 2024:
tectum argenti - Gravitational Lensing, Shapeshifters Cinema, Oakland, CA [16mm film: digitised, screening].
Diane (wrapped in plastic), screening at Analogica 14, Bologna, Italy.
2024
tectum argenti and Blue Moon, in On Queerness and Ecology, London [16mm film, digitised: group exhibition].
Blue Moon - Repetition, PHOTO-CANOPY, July [16mm film: digitised, group exhibition]
Diane (wrapped in plastic), on tour with Light Matter Film Festival [super 8mm, digitised: screening] @ New York Filmmaker’s Coop, NYC | Kino Palais, Buenos Aires | Museo Nacional del Ecuador, Quito, Ecuador | NoName Cinema, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
tectum argenti, New Year, New Work @ New York Filmmaker’s Coop, NYC [16mm film: digitised, screening].
tectum argenti - Illumination, Bristol Folk House Darkroom and Centrespace Gallery, Bristol, 18-24 April [group exhibition]
tectum argenti, @ Analogue Ensemble: Desaturated, Ramsgate (UK)
Blue Moon, Animating Hexham, 9-11 February [16mm film: digitised, group exhibition]
tectum argenti, Queer Beach, Brighton, 29 January-11 February [16mm film: digitised, group exhibition]
2023
Diane (wrapped in plastic), Light Matter Film Festival, Alfred, NY - Programme 7: Un-framing
tectum argenti [16mm: digitised] screening @ CROSSROADS, San Francisco - Program 4: Light slants in the wrong direction | 25 FPS Festival, Zagreb, Croatia: International Competition: Programme 4 - The Power of Goodbye | Kinoskop, Belgrade, Serbia | Strangloscope, Brazil | Braziers International Film Festival, Braziers Park, Oxfordshire | SeaChange Festival, Isle of Tiree, Screen Argyll
Diane (wrapped in plastic) screening at Film and Forage Symposium, curated by Joanna Mayes and the Sustainable Darkroom.
Scott Creative Arts Foundation Emerging Artist Award 2023, 13 September 2023 - 5 January 2024, Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield [group exhibition]
Scott Creative Arts Foundation Emerging Artist Award 2023, 1 July-13 August, the Art House, Thirsk [group exhibition]
Unprojectable [16mm film] The Cutting Table, curated by Sarah Eyre, 27 April – 5 July 2023, Leeds Arts University [16mm film installation, group exhibition]
Meeting Halfway, with Lucy Bergman [16mm double channel film: digitised, screening] @ Braziers International Film Festival, Braziers Park, Oxfordshire: Documented Realities | SeaChange Festival, Tiree (Screen Argyll) | Flatpack, Birmingham.
2022
tectum argenti, The Art House Wakefield. Commissioned by Loose Screw Film Festival [16mm film: digitised, screening]
Meeting Halfway, SunUp @ UpCo, Otley. Collaboration with Lucy Bergman [super 8mm double channel film, screening]
2017
Screen Kiss, The Telfer Gallery/Edinburgh Art Festival - On Residual Agencies [16mm film performance, screening]
Unravel NYC, Leeds Arts University [16mm film: digitised installation, group show]
2016
Unravel NYC, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York - Dreamlands [16mm film: digitised, screening].
Leeds Arts University - Embodied Language: between a and b [35mm slide installation, group show]
2014
Screen Kiss Series on tour in the One Hundred Foot II artist film programme [16mm film: screening] @ The Star and Shadow, Newcastle | Jerwood Gallery, London | Whitstable Biennale | Lo & Behold Gallery, London.
2013
Screen Kiss Series on tour in the One Hundred Foot II artist film programme [16mm film: screening] @ MKGallery, Milton Keynes | Latitude Festival, UK
Manifestoh!, National Portrait Gallery, London - Film Movement in Light [super8mm: digitised, screening]
Screen Kiss, The Royal Standard, Liverpool - Misdirect Movies [16mm film performance, screening]
Screen Kiss, Film Material Soup #8, Rogue Studios, Manchester [16mm film performance, screening]
2012
Cleanse, Tone, Moisturise [Conceal], FACT, Liverpool - Cellul-oko [16mm film performance, screening]
Leeds 78, Project Space Leeds, Leeds - GLAMOURIE – M1 < Dark Heart. Collaboration with Mark Byrne [16mm film and 35mm slide projection performance, screening/group show]
Unravel, IKON Gallery, Birmingham [16mm: digitised, installation]
2011
Cinéma Corporel, Granary Wharf, Leeds [solo show with curated film & performance event]
Unravel: the longest hand-painted film in Britain - film workshop tour [16mm film: digitised, installation] @ The Arnolfini, Bristol | CCA, Glasgow | Chisenhale Gallery, London | National Media Museum, Bradford | Berwick Film and Media Arts Festival.
2010
Untitled for two projectors, The Plaza, Leeds - The Plaza Principle. Collaboration with Mark Byrne [16mm film installation, group show]
2009
Manifest-oh!, Sheffield DocFest, Sheffield [Super 8mm: digitised, screening]
Cleanse, Tone, Moisturise [Conceal], Exploding Cinema, London [16mm film performance, screening]
2008
Cleanse, Tone, Moisturise [Conceal], Leeds International Film Festival, Leeds [16mm film performance, screening]
Commissions, Bursaries and Awards
2024
Awarded: Horizons / Leeds Cultural Institute funding to deliver the interdisciplinary project ‘Reimagining Urban Wildernesses in Bradford’, in collaboration with researchers from the University of Leeds and the University of Bradford.
R & D Bursary: Leeds Creative Labs x Bradford Producing Hub. Photographic research collaboration with Evgenia Ilyinskaya, Associate Professor at the Institute of Geophysics and Tectonics, University of Leeds - exploring the study of volcanic activity and effects on local populations, air pollution, local botany and community knowledge through sustainable and alternative photographic processes.
2023
Commission: Martin Thomas Memorial Artwork, University of Leeds - creating a film through collaborative and participatory processes.
Award: 3rd place Finalist in the Scott Creative Arts Foundation Emerging Artist Award 2023.
Award: Bradford Council Arts and Heritage Grant for In Search of the Giant’s Wife: Herstories of Rombald’s Moor: artistic collaboration with Eve Miller.
2022
Bursary: A-N Artist’s Professional Development Bursary to research and develop sustainable analogue filmmaking practices
Commission: (artist’s film) for Loose Screw Film Festival, supported by The Art House, Wakefield / ArtWalk Wakefield and Wakefield Council
2019
Bursary: A-N Writer Development Programme 2019-20 - training, mentoring and bursary.
2016
Residency: Unravel @ Whitney Museum of American Art, Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art 1905–2016, New York. Workshops with schools, community groups, members, children and families, and teens; production of a handmade 16mm film and soundtrack:
2012
Commission: 16mm film installation for Flip Animation Festival, Wolverhampton
Commission: artist’s film for Wakefield Mystery Tour, The Art House, Wakefield [super 8mm, 16mm and 35mm slides: digitised, installation]
2010
Award: Deutsche Bank Award for Art at the Royal College of Art 2010: for Unravel: the longest hand painted film in Britain. This artists’ collaboration engaged 3000+ participants in 100+ venues (museums, galleries, film festivals) across the UK in accessible, experimental, tactile and collaborative filmmaking practice. Hosts included: Tate Britain, BFI South Bank, Turner Contemporary Margate, Royal College of Art, No.w.here, Chisenhale Gallery, National Media Museum, FACT, The Whitworth Gallery, HOME, Firstsite, IKON, MAC, Leeds International Film Festival, Sheffield DocFest, Picture This.
selected Publications / Features
2024
Early films and live analogue projections featured in the experimental music documentary on Vibracathedral Orchestra - Enormous Yes (2024) dir. Stewart Morgan Hajdukiewicz - now distributed by New York Filmmakers’ Coop.
2023
Expanded cinema performance Screen Kiss featured in Analog Cookbook #7 [artist text and images]
‘Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun: BooBoo’s Exploding Plastic Inevitable’, book chapter on the cult film Spectres of the Spectrum (1999) in Craig Baldwin: Avant to Live! eds Brett Kashmere and Steve Polta, co-published by Incite: A Journal of Experimental Media & San Francisco Cinematheque
2022
Untitled (June 2019) and Front Carry - poems included in the artists’ book Softcore, edited by Rebecca Orr
Unprojectable, featured in SoAnyway Issue Twelve [16mm film: digitised]
Unprojectable, featured by Millennium Film Journal [16mm film: digitised]
Emily Hesse: W.I. Corridor 8 | exhibition review
2020
Expanded cinema performance Cleanse, Tone, Moisturise (Conceal) featured in Found Footage Magazine #6 [artist text and images]
How Was It for You? with Liz Johnson Artur. a-n | interview
Joy Labinjo: Our Histories Cling to Us, a-n | exhibition review
2019
Eulogy Corridor 8, 7 August | exhibition review
Publicly-Funded Minerals, Corridor 8, 27 July | exhibition review
2018
Screen Kiss discussed in: Anastassiou, M. 2018. ‘Silver Screens’, in Physical or Otherwise: Suggestions and Encounters. Glasgow: Telfer Gallery, pp.32-49
Creative Educator
2023: Lecturer, BA Filmmaking, Leeds Arts University
2023: Lead Creative Practitioner, KIOSK / ELP and LEEDS 2023: developing and delivering summer creative arts workshops for family-friendly festivals in Leeds.
2021-2023: Associate Lecturer, BA Filmmaking, Visual Communication, Fashion Photography and Creative Writing, Leeds Arts University.
2021-2022: Co-Lead Practitioner and Steering Group Member for KIOSK, in partnership with the East Leeds Project and NHS/Healthier Futures. Devised a large-scale UK CRF funded workshop programme for delivery with young people across Leeds to encourage creativity, participation and skills development.
2020: Lead Creative Practitioner - Leeds Lit Fest in partnership with Pavilion: Film x Poetry / Poetry x Film workshop
2017: Co-Lead Creative Practitioner, Bedford Creative Arts/The Higgins, Bedford: Living Mural - analogue projection performance workshop for families.
2016: Co-Lead Creative Practitioner, Unravel NYC - 10 day 16mm filmmaking workshop residency at The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
2016: Lead Creative Practitioner, Bedford Creative Arts/The Higgins, Bedford: Creative cameraless 16mm film workshop.
2013: University of Aberdeen/sound Festival: 16mm found footage/optical sound workshop.
2012: Flip Animation Festival, Wolverhampton: 16mm found footage/optical sound workshop.
2012: Artist in Residence at Artspace, Leeds Art Gallery, for Fiona Rae - Maybe you can live on the moon in the next century: creative summer holiday analogue workshop programme for children and families
2011: National Media Museum, Bradford: Drawing on Film: 16mm film animation workshop.
2010-2013: Co-Lead Artist - Unravel - The longest hand-painted film in Britain [16mm filmmaking workshop tour - UK wide]
2010: Impressions Gallery, Bradford: 16mm film animation workshop.
2010: Lumen/Project Space Leeds: Introduction to 16mm filmmaking, processing and projection.
2009: School of Fine Art, University of Leeds: Creative introduction to super 8 filmmaking.
2008: Leeds College of Art: Creative super 8 filmmaking, processing and projection.