Karen Mirza & Brad Butler, Deep State, 2012. Still from the HD video. Courtesy the artists and Waterside Contemporary
Karen Mirza & Brad Butler
Deep State
2, 3, 6–10 November 2012
at Waterside Contemporary, London
Screenings start on the hour, 12-5pm, duration 45′
Private view screening and reception Friday 2 November, 6.30pm
Deep State, a new film by Karen Mirza and Brad Butler is scripted in collaboration with author China Miéville. The work takes its title from the Turkish term ‘Derin Devlet’, meaning ‘state within the state’. This shadowy nexus of special interests and covert relationships is the place where real power is said to reside, and where fundamental decisions are made.
Amorphous and unseen, the influence of this deep state is glimpsed at regular points throughout the film – most clearly surfacing in its reflexive responses to popular protest, and in legislated acts of violence and containment, but also rumbling and reverberating, deeper down, in a counter-language to that of popular revolt, in which a police charge, a baton attack, pepper spray, assassinations provoke, and respond to, a raised fist, a thrown rock, a crowd surge, an occupation. [read the full text here]
Waterside Contemporary
2 Clunbury Str,
London N1 6TT
waterside-contemporary.com
Opening hours:
Wednesday – Saturday: 12.00 – 18.00
First Thursdays: 12.00 – 21.00
or by appointment