SARAHJANE SWAN & ROGER SIMIAN
CV
EDUCATION
SARAHJANE SWAN
BA (Hons) in Fine Art Sculpture, Grays School of Art, Aberdeen, Scotland, 1998
ROGER SIMIAN
BA (Hons) Open, Open University, 2013
Diploma in Literature and Creative Writing, Open University, 2007
ARTS GRANTS, AWARDS
and COMMISSIONS
2021: Awarded South of Scotland VACMA grant for filmmaking equipment
2020: Commissioned by Imprints of the New Modernist Editing (University of Glasgow) to create a new work inspired by a Modernist text - Every Thought Generates A Throw of the Dice
2019: Winner of Pauline Fay Lazarus prize for work using the human form - Boy and the Sea
2019: Awarded Hope-Scott Trust grant for filmmaking equipment
2017: Awarded South of Scotland VACMA grant for filmmaking equipment
2017: Awarded Creative Scotland Screen Funding travel grant for London Short Film Festival
2016: Shortlisted for EIFF Short Film Challenge - SuperFly Super 8 circa Nineteen Seventy-Seven
2015: Awarded South of Scotland VACMA grant for filmmaking equipment
INSTALLATIONS, EXHIBITIONS and
EXPANDED CINEMA PERFORMANCE
Every Thought Generates A Throw of the Dice (Interdisciplinary Exhibition) - Imprints: Art Editing Modernism, Shandy Hall, Coxwold, Yorkshire, England, 28 Aug - 11 Sept 2021
Boy and the Sea (Short Film Exhibition) - Open: SSA + VAS / Cutlog group exhibition, Royal Scottish Academy (RSA), Edinburgh, Scotland, Dec 2019 to Jan 2020
Ghost Worlds: Animal Rites (Expanded Cinema) - Alchemy Film And Moving Image Festival,
Celebrate Super 8, Auld Baths, Hawick, Scotland, 4 May 2018
Alphonso’s Jaw (Installation) - Alchemy Film And Moving Image Festival,
Crown Buildings, Hawick, Scotland, 4-17 April 2016
Tibbie Tamson Unbound (Installation) - Beyond the Shutters, The Haining, Selkirk, Scotland, 11-20 Sept 2015
Things Fall Apart; The Centre Cannot Hold (Installation) - Alchemy Film And Moving Image Festival,
Crown Buildings, Hawick, Scotland, 16-19 April 2015
Orphine (Installation) - Alchemy Film And Moving Image Festival,
Crown Buildings, Hawick, Scotland, 3-6 April 2014
Sung To The Crows (Installation) - Alchemy Film And Moving Image Festival,
Crown Buildings, Hawick, Scotland, 26-28 Oct 2012
FILM SCREENINGS
SCOTLAND
ALCHEMY FILM AND MOVING IMAGE FESTIVAL - Hawick
Flow State - Still Processing programme (online) - May 2020
Merzfrau - MIMC (Moving Image Makers Collective) screenings - March 2017
In The Dark I Sat - Oct 2012
ART WALK PORTY - Edinburgh
Boy and the Sea (silent) - Tracing The Tide programme - Sept 2019
EDINBURGH BIG SCREEN / BBC MUSIC VIDEO FESTIVAL
Do You Wanna? (music video) - Festival Square Big Screen - Sept to Oct 2011
EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL (EIFF)
Sea Stone Wind Woman - EIFF Walk With Us - June 2019
Superfly Super 8 circa Nineteen Seventy-Seven - shortlisted for EIFF Short Film Challenge - Aug 2016
EDINBURGH SHORT FILM FESTIVAL (ESFF)
Creola Dream Theatre - Other's Stories programme - Nov 2022
Boy and the Sea - Conventionality Isn't Me programme - Nov 2019
HIDDEN DOOR - Edinburgh
Crossbones and Decimal / Hannah Und Hans - LowDef Film and Video - June 2016
Atrocity / Subterranean BirdMonkey - LowDef Film and Video - May 2015
RSA (ROYAL SCOTTISH ACADEMY) - Edinburgh
Boy and the Sea - Open: SSA + VAS / Cutlog group exhibition - Dec 2019 to Jan 2020
Also - FOREST CAFE (EDINBURGH); EDINBURGH DIGITAL ENTERTAINMENT FESTIVAL; FOMO 2 at STEREO CAFE BAR (GLASGOW); HEDERA FELIX: MYCELIA Launch 2 (GLASGOW); CABN/MANIFEST + MOON MOTHS + OFF THE PEG/CREATIVE COATHANGER at MACARTS (GALASHIELS); MIMC (SELKIRK).
ENGLAND
EXPLODING APPENDIX / ECSTATIC VISIONS - Brighton
In The Arbor of the Bitter Orange - July 2018
EXPLODING CINEMA - London
Flow State + zoom chat - Digital Detonation programme (online) - May 2020
Orphine - Dec 2017
Do You want To Shine My Boots? (music video) - The Disposable Film Show - Oct 2016
Blood On Our Hands (music video) - July 2016
L'Oiseau Et Le Singe - The Disposable Film Show - Sept 2015
Eat Your Star (music video) - The Disposable Film Show - Sept 2014
LONDON SHORT FILM FESTIVAL (LSFF)
Superfly Super 8 circa Nineteen Seventy-Seven - Jan 2017
PORTOBELLO FILM FESTIVAL - London
Flow State - Sept 2020
Ghost Worlds (Animal Rites) - Sept 2019
Merzfrau: Bloomed - a Portrait of the Muse, Anna Blume - Nov 2017
Alphonso's Jaw - Sept 2016
Things Fall Apart; The Centre Cannot Hold - Sept 2015
Orphine - Aug 2014
In The Dark I Sat - Sept 2012
SHORT CIRCUIT at PRESUMING ED - Brighton
Alphonso's Jaw - Oct 2016
EUROPE & SCANDINAVIA
CRUCE CENTER OF CONTEMPORARY ART / TIME IS LOVE - Madrid, Spain
Alphonso's Jaw - TIME is Love 12 touring programme - Feb 2020
FILM PANIC PRESENTS - Porto, Portugal
Orphine - Feb 2017
FREE THE KITSCH ATHENS FILM FESTIVAL - Athens, Greece
Creola Dream Theatre - Dec 2022
IN ABSENTIA DIGITAL PAVILION - Foggia, Italy
Atrocity - Connect: International Videoarts / Semiosphera / The Wrong - Nov 2019
KINO KLUB SPLIT - Split, Croatia
Anna of my Seventy-Two Senses - Dec 2019
Alphonso's Jaw - Sept 2019
MINIFESTIVAL DE MUSICA INDEPENDENT DE BARCELONA - Barcelona, Spain
Superfly Super 8 circa Nineteen Seventy-Seven /
Anna of my Seventy-Two Senses - Super 8 screening event - Feb 2018
NICHT MUSEUM / TIME IS LOVE - Dresden, Germany
Alphonso's Jaw - TIME is Love 12 touring programme /
Nicht Museum für Zeitgemasser Kunst at Neumarkt - July 2020
STATION TO STATION - Warsaw, Poland / Sophia, Bulgaria / Tallin, Estonia
Merzfrau - Warsaw, June 2017 / Sophia, Sept 2017 / Tallin, May 2018
UPPSALA SHORT FILM FESTIVAL - Uppsala, Sweden
Flow State - Oct 2020
VASTERAS FILM FESTIVAL - Västerås, Sweden
Boy and the Sea (60 secs) - Oct 2019
NORTH AMERICA
CONNECT: INTERNATIONAL VIDEOARTS FESTIVAL - Florida, USA
Atrocity - Film, Animation & New Media Dept at University of Tampa - Oct 2019
ESMOA VIDEO ART + FILM FESTIVAL - Los Angeles, USA
Boy and the Sea (60 secs) - Festival theme: BLISS - Dec 2022
GOTTA MINUTE FILM FESTIVAL - Edmonton & Calgary, Canada
Boy and the Sea (60 secs) - screening throughout Albeta's Subway Systems - Oct 2020
ELY CENTER OF CONTEMPORARY ART / TIME IS LOVE - New Haven, USA
Alphonso's Jaw - TIME is Love 12 touring programme - March to April 2020
TUFF (Toronto Urban Film Festival) - Toronto, Canada
Somnambulance - screening throughout Toronto's Subway System - Sept 2016
VAST LAB - Los Angeles, USA
Flow State - live scored soundtrack by Normandy Falls - May 2020
SOUTH AMERICA
INTERNATIONAL PANORAMA - Porto Alegre & Florianopolis, Brazil
Boy and the Sea - Videoart & Experimental Cinema vol 2 - Nov 2019
AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND
BLUE OYSTER GALLERY / TIME IS LOVE - Dunedin, New Zealand
Alphonso's Jaw - TIME is Love 12 touring programme - July 2020
NORTH BELLARINE FILM FESTIVAL - Australia
Ghost Worlds & SuperFly Super 8 circa 1977 - Film & Video Art / Blast From The Past - Nov 2019
TV and RADIO BROADCASTS
Since 2017 short films by Avant Kinema have aired in several episodes of the experimental American Cable Access Show, Here Comes Everybody, syndicated to cities across the USA, including Los Angeles, Berkeley, Portland, Olympia, Seattle and Chicago. Films broadcast on HCE: Anna of my Seventy-Two Senses (ep 17), Orkneyinga (ep 23), Superfly Super 8 circa Nineteen Seventy Seven (ep 28), Alphonso's Jaw (ep 31), Things Fall Apart; The Centre Cannot Hold (ep 32).
Songs written and performed by Swan and Simian as The Bird And The Monkey have aired frequently on BBC 6 Music (Tom Robinson), Amazing Radio (Jim Gellatly), Acacia Radio's Sunday Evening Service (Ian Hales), TD1 Radio (Donald Strachan) and Sheppey FM (Phil Crowder). Tracks by The Bird And The Monkey have also received spot plays on BBC Radio 1 in Scotland (Ally McCrae) and Radio Scotland (Vic Galloway).
In 2011 the track, Moon Moth, was used in the soundtrack to the BBC2 teen drama, The Cut.
THEATRE
Swan and Simian enrolled on Playwrights Studio Scotland's Scottish Borders Playwriting Programme, 2017 to 2018, including monthly workshops, a trip to Edinburgh Festival, completion of a 45 minute theatre script, Orphine and the Underworld, script workshops with trained actors and a director, script-in-hand performance in front of an audience at MacArts in Galashiels, script feedback and mentoring from a professional playwright. The programme led on to the formation of Borders Pub Theatre which has since put on several theatre events throughout the Scottish Borders.
WORKSHOPS
Creating Installations Workshop - in conjunction with Youthlink Cashback for Creativity Project at Alchemy Film and Arts, High Street, Hawick, Feb and April 2018
Super 8 Workshop - in conjunction with Alchemy Community Engagement Project, Burnfoot Community Hub, Hawick, 10 Dec 2016
Introduction to the Music Industry - 8 week course hosted by Roger Simian in conjunction with Impact Arts, Galashiels and Duns, 2011
PUBLICATIONS
Every Thought Generates A Throw of the Dice by Avant Kinema - art-book exhibition publication created for Imprints: Art Editing Modernism group exhibition at Shandy Hall, Yorkshire, 2021
Exploding Appendix (REVOLUTION*ART*MANIFESTO dossier) - online reprint of oobROY: The Smashed Glass Manifestos (Jan 2021)
Analog Cookbook (American journal of cameraless filmmaking) - interview with Avant Kinema (issue 3, Winter 2020)
Film Panic - interview with Avant Kinema (issue 4, May 2017); reprint of Avant Kinema Manifesto (issue 5, Jan 2018)
INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENTS
IN THE ARTS
SARAHJANE SWAN
* 2 solo single releases (Shark Batter Records, 2009) leading to national BBC airplay from Don Letts and Vic Galloway.
* Video art performance (2009) later adapted for the music video, Daisy James on the Pincushion (2010), and the experimental film, Alchemikal Sundays (2011).
* Large sculptural works created for London's Heaven nightclub (1999).
* Work exhibited at the RSA (Royal Scottish Academy, 1998) - 39 death-masks in a suitcase, inspired by the Heaven’s Gate Cult.
* Art school degree work, including: 10-foot wave of fish skins, customized male suits and snake slough sewn together as abstract forms.
ROGER SIMIAN
* Short plays, Magooboo (2019) and James Hogg and the Corbie Craw (2021), performed by Borders Pub Theatre in Selkirk, Hawick, Duns (Duns Play Fest) and Peebles (Hogg in the Limelight, EastGate Theatre). Magooboo included in the anthology Plays 1: Borders Pub Theatre, published by Texthouse (2021).
* 2007 to 2010: fiction/poetry published in Scottish literary magazines, Chapman and The Eildon Tree; arts reviews in The Big Issue.
* Indie musician/songwriter with Dawn Of The Replicants (1996-2006): 2 major label LPs; several Indie LPs; 5 John Peel Sessions; festival appearances (Glastonbury, Reading, T In The Park, and SxSW); music videos aired on ITV's Chart Show and MTV2's 120 Minutes. Also wrote and performed with Crunchy Joseph, Pluto Monkey and The Stark Palace.
* Co-creator nationally distributed mid-90s music magazine, Sun Zoom Spark + self-publisher of dumb/SULK trigg-er 'zine.