The Futurist (2008) - Paul Rooney

Acquired for the Victoria Gallery & Museum, University of Liverpool.

The collection at the Victoria was initiated in 1881, and now holds significant 20th century acquisitions including works by Barbara Hepworth, Phillip King, Lucian Freud, Euan Uglow and Bridget Riley; there is a loosely interpreted desire to ensure that the collection has a close relationship to Liverpool.

Paul Rooney was born and is based in Liverpool. Trained at Edinburgh College of Art, Rooney was the winner of the second Northern Art Prize in 2009. Rooney’s work explores sound, the passage of time and the relationship between memory and identity. The Futurist is a film work set in an iconic derelict Liverpool cinema of the same name. The brooding, crumbling interior featured in the work reminds us of an era of classic film, whilst the fragments of performance from the comedians performing within the soundtrack present an experience of this very well-known building in Liverpool’s layered history.

The Futurist is the first moving image work to be acquired for the collection and links to other historical parts of the collection through its use of the architectural spaces of Liverpool, its history, and the consideration of memory and time. This, and other works by Paul Rooney, will be exhibited at the Victoria Gallery & Museum as part of his solo exhibition in September 2012 to coincide with the Liverpool Biennial.