Back to list 2004 BECKS’ FUTURES AWARD WINNER PRESENTS NEW
FILM WORK AT THE SOUTH LONDON GALLERY Trailer, a new film work by 2004 Beck’s Futures
Award Winner, Saskia Olde Wolbers, is to be shown for
the first time at the South London Gallery from 18 May
2005. The main character of Olde Wolbers’ new work, a
middle aged man who we hear but never see, describes his
discovery that his real parents, who he has never known,
were c-list actors in the Thirties. While watching a
trailer for a film he learns that his parents
disappeared in the jungle shooting their last film and
subsequently two species of venomous plants were named
after them; the Elmore Vella, a species of flytrap, and
Ring Kittle, an ancient red back tree. The man, Alfgar
Dalio, was given the name of a moth that became homeless
when his mother’s addiction to the flytrap caused its
extinction. Elmore Vella and Ring Kettle often played roles
too minor for them to be included in film credits, so
Dalio spends his days in cinemas watching old black and
white movies made by their studio, Roxboro, in the hope
that one of his parents might make an appearance. He
lives his life on the trail of his parents, constantly
searching for clues of a long-forgotten shared history. In Olde Wolbers’ films the narration of fictional
stories in the style of media reportage of real events
provides the sound track, while the visual focus is on
fantastic landscapes or strange interior spaces. In
Trailer, scenes alternate between the maroon coloured
interior of a cinema and an extraordinary jungle. In
fact these are painstakingly hand crafted sets,
manipulated in various ways to create work in which
boundaries between film, sculpture, installation and
painting are redefined. Dutch-born Olde Wolbers lives and works locally
to the South London Gallery. In 2003 she won the Baloise
Art prize at Basel Art Fair, and last year she won the
Becks’ Futures Award at the ICA. Since completing her MA
at Chelsea College of Art & Design in 1996, she has
built up an impressive body of work for which she has a
growing international reputation The exhibition has been supported by the Henry
Moore Foundation, Vicky Hughes and John Smith, and
Maureen Paley, London. Media Sponsor: Pluk Magazine All images are courtesy of Maureen Paley, London | 
