All That Is Solid
Synopsis
A technographic study of e-recycling and neo-colonial mining filmed in the Agbogbloshie electronic waste ground in Accra and illegal gold mines of Ghana. The video constructs a mise-en-abyme as critique in order to dispel the capitalist myth of the immateriality of new technology - thus revealing the mineral weight with which the Cloud is grounded to its earthly origins.
Statement
As technological progress pushes forward in the west, enormous piles of obsolete computers are thrown away and recycled. Pushed out of sight and sent to the coast of West Africa these computers are thrown into waste grounds such as Agbogbloshie in Accra, Ghana. On arrival the e-waste is recuperated by young men, who break and burn the plastic casings in order to extract the precious metals contained within. Eventually the metals are sold, melted and reformed into new objects to be sold – it is a strange system of recycling, a kind of reverse neocolonial mining, whereby the African is searching for mineral resources in the materials of Europe. Through showing these heavy processes, the video highlights the importance of dispelling the capitalist myth of the immateriality of new technology to reveal the mineral weight with which the Cloud is grounded to its earthly origins.
Palmarès
Awards
Barbara Aronofsky Latham Award for Emerging Video Artist - 53rd Ann Arbor Film Festival, USA, 2015
European Short Film Award – T-Mobile New Horizons International Film Festival, Wroclaw, Poland, 2015
Avant Première
Kinemastik International Short Film Festival, Valletta, 2014
Exhibitions and screenings
02/2018 - Passerelle - Centre d'art contemporain, Brest, France
06/2017 - Gallery for Contemporary Art, Leipzig - Chinafrika: Under Construction., Leipzig, Germany
12/2016 - Museum Moritzburg and Werkleitz, Halle, Germany
11/2016 - Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur, Switzerland
01/2016 - Le Bal (Programme pédagogique “Mon Œil” à la Fémis), Paris, France
01/2016 - AU 61, Paris 19, Paris, France
10/2015 - Projections, 53rd New York Film Festival, USA
10/2015 - Conversations at the Edge, Gene Siskel Film Centre, Chicago, USA
10/2015 - Les propriétés du sol, Espace Khiasma, Paris, France
10/2015 - The Cost of Wealth, Cinematek, Brussels, Belgium
25/09/15 - Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival le 25 Septembre
08/2015 - International Competition, Fronteira International Experimental and Documentary Film Festival, Goiânia, Brazil
07/2015 - International Competition, Lago Film Festival, Revine Lago, Italy
05/2015 - Solo presentation, Platform, Stockholm, Sweden
04/2015 - Art Technology and the Natural World, Harn Museum of Art, Gainesville, USA
04/2015 - Out of Competition, Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, Germany
04/2015 - International Competition, IndieLisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
04/2015 - Out of Competition, Kino der Kunst, Munich, Germany
04/2015 - International Competition, EMAF - Osnabrueck, Germany
03/2015 - International Competition, 53rd Ann Arbor Film Festival, USA
03/2015 - From Coal to Gold, Dushanbe Art Ground, Dushanbe, Tajikistan
03/2015 - Out of Competition, Poznan Shortwaves festival, Poland
03/2015 - International Competition, Luxor African Film Festival, Egypt
02/2015 - Plastik - Artists' moving image festival, Galway, Ireland
01/2015 – Out of Competition, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Netherlands
01/2015 - Transmediale 2015, Haus der Kulteren Der Welt, Berlin, Germany
11/2014 - Time, a Hesitant Smile, Hackney Picturehouse, London, UK
11/2014 - VISIO, Lo Schermo dell'Arte, Florence, Italy
11/2014 - International Competition, Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur, Switzerland
11/2014 - International Competition, Kassel Dokfest, Kassel, Germany
09/2014 - International Competition, 25fps Experimental Film Festival, Zagreb, Croatia
09/2014 - International Competition, Milano Film Festival, Italy
07/2014 - International Competition, Kinemastik International Short Fim Festival, Malta
04/2014 - 59eme Salon de Montrouge - Paris, France
Born in Norwich, 1983 and currently living in Paris. In 2007 Henderson received a First Class BA Honours in Film and Video from London College of Communication, and in 2013 graduated with ‘felicitations du jury’ from Le Fresnoy - Studio National des Arts Contemporains. He has shown his work nationally and internationally, including Rotterdam International Film Festival, CPH:DOX, Le Printemps de Septembre, Belo Horizonte Film Festival, Jihlava Documentary Festival, EMAF Osnabrueck, British Film Institute, Centre Pompidou, Museo Reina Sofia, Tate Modern and Whitechapel Gallery.
Henderson’s films can be categorised as documentary-fictions that engage with subjects such as post-colonialism, history, politics and anthropology. His cinema reflects on society’s cultural and material remains and as such his films are essentially archaeological; focusing on the signatures of the archaic in the contemporary.
In 2015, he received the Barbara Aronofsky Price for emerging visual artists in the 53rd edition of the Ann Arbor Festival USA and the Best European Short Film at the International Film Festival T-Mobile New Horizons in Wroclaw, Poland.
His latest films are produced by Spectre and distributed by Phantom (FR) and LUX (UK).
He lives and works in Paris.
Filmography
Overtures, work in progress
Sunstone (2018) Super 16mm and HD, 16:9, Stereo Sound, 34 minutes
The Sea is History(2016) HD 16:9, Dolby 5.1, 21 minutes, 27 minutes
Black Code/Code Noir (2015) HD 16:9, Dolby 5.1, 21 minutes
All That is Solid (2014) HD 16:9, stereo, 15 minutes
Lettres du Voyant (2013) HD 16:9, Dolby 5.1, 40 minutes
Logical Revolts (2012) HD 16:9, Dolby 5.1, 44 minutes
A Walk With Nigel (2010) HD, 16:9, Stereo sound, 22 minutes