#CASatHome: I Hope I’m Loud When I’m Dead (2018), by Beatrice Gibson

This film was online from 12.00, 27 May 2020 to 12.00, 30 May 2020

As part #CASatHome film series we are pleased to present I Hope I’m Loud When I’m Dead (2018) by Beatrice Gibson. Donated to Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery by the CAS alongside the V&A Purchase Fund, Art Fund and NCAS, it has been made available here for 72 hours only.

Beatrice Gibson is an artist and filmmaker whose collaborative practice spans many disciplines, including poetry, dance and music. Driven by her own experiences of motherhood, Gibson has increasingly prioritised feminist and queer perspectives in her work. In doing so, the artist provides a transformative vision of community, addressing global concerns that are grounded in the lived experiences of the individual.

I Hope I’m Loud When I’m Dead is a highly personal account of the artist’s world set against the backdrop of Donald Trump’s inauguration ceremony in 2017. The work draws on a rich variety of visual and literary material, exploring an increasingly volatile socio-political climate. The film begins with the artist describing an overwhelming moment of panic, a feeling that intensifies with the introduction of further voices. Poets CAConrad and Eileen Myles feature prominently, with the work’s title taken from CAConrad’s poem of the same name. The fast-moving visuals deliberately disorientate the viewer, just as global events disorientate with waves of fear and anxiety. By interweaving tender footage of the artist’s own family into the film however, an alternative narrative of community and strength emerges.

Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery is often described as a ‘landscape museum’ containing the world’s finest collection of work by the Norwich School of Artists. Many works in the modern and contemporary collection reflect and expand upon this tradition. Gibson’s work addresses broader political, social and economic landscapes through an intensely personal lens, one that emphasises the familial spaces that feature so prominently in people’s lives.

Beatrice Gibson (b. 1978) lives and works in London. Recent solo exhibitions include Crone Music at Camden Art Centre, London (2019), Beatrice Gibson at MUDAM Musee d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg (201) and Beatrice Gibson: Crippled Symmetries at Collective Gallery, Edinburgh (2015). Recent group exhibitions include Strange Attractor at Ballroom Marfa, Texas (2017); Tension Economy at Contemporary Art Centre Parc Saint Leger, Pougues-es-Eaux, Bourgogne, France (2016) and Max Mara Prize for Women Artists at Whitechapel Gallery, London (2014).

Purchased with support from Arts Council England/V&A Purchase Grant Fund, Contemporary Art Society, Art Fund and Norfolk Contemporary Art Society.