Fiona Banner | Evening Standard
Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press, Pranayama Organ, 2021. High definition digital film 10:38 mins. Soft Parts: Wing, Flap, Fin, 2022 Bespoke beanbags. Dimensions variable. Installation view, Patronato Salesiano XIII, Venice, 2022. Photo: Enrico Fiorese
By Nancy Durrant
“Simultaneously funny and oddly moving, this ten minute (yay!) film by the British artist Fiona Banner was made during lockdown on a shingle beach on the English South Coast - a bleak spot, liminal and soaked with ancient history. Two characters start out sprawled on the beach, slowly filling out to a soundtrack of human breath (and increasingly, deliberately overblown and ominous music) to reveal themselves as… two inflatable fighter planes, dancing together on this grey stretch, a much-needed emasculation of the tools of conflict. It’s ridiculous but also weirdly lovely (and short). The film is accompanied by a painting and a publication artwork, and the script for an impenetrable but entertaining Noh play written by Banner and her collaborator Tom McCarthy. It’s bonkers, and fun.”