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PIA BORG (1977) is an artist and filmmaker currently based in LA. Since graduating with an MA in animation from the Royal College of Art, she is developing her first feature film on the artist Leonora Carrington. Her filmography includes: THROUGH THE HAWTHORN (2014), CRYSTAL WORLD (2013), PALIMPSEST (2008), FOOTNOTE (2004). She teaches experimental animation at CalArts, California. EDWARD LAWRENSON (1973) is a filmmaker and journalist based in London. His films (VINEGAR TO JAM (2012), A THOUSAND TREES (2010) have shown at the London International Short Film Festival, Open City London Film Festival and Visions du Réel. He programmed for the BFI London and Edinburgh Film Festivals. A former deputy editor of Sight & Sound, he writes for Time Out, the Guardian, Film Quarterly.
- Golden Pardino for Best International Short Film – Locarno International Film Festival 2014
- London Film Festival 2014
- Janela Internatcional de Cinema Do Recife 2014
- Hamptons International Film Festival 2014
The story of the Adamson Collection is a fascinating one, but not as widely known as it should be - which was one impulse for us to make ABANDONED GOODS. In exploring the history of key objects from the collection, we also hoped to bring to life unseen aspects of post-war asylum life in Britain; through archive, photographs and voice, we wanted to point to the challenging circumstances in which the artworks were produced and evoke the lives of the artists, many of whom spent decades compelled to live in an asylum.
Above all we wanted to celebrate the artworks themselves, capturing, with the beauty of film, the rich and subtle detail of our featured paintings and sculptures. Exploring the different ways the Adamson Collection have been viewed over the years - from clinical material to revered artwork – Abandoned Goods interrogates ideas about status and value, concerns that, we hope, resonate with debates around the representation of people with mental illness. Now displayed for public appreciation, the objects in the Collection make visible the work of men and women, who were hidden away and neglected in hospital during their lifetime. (Pia Borg & Edward Lawrenson)