I hope you make Brunel your Hero | 16mm film with live vocal accompaniment | 06:46 | 2014 

In January 2014, Video Jam was commissioned by Manchester Art Gallery to curate an event in response to Turner Prize winning artist Jeremy Deller’s Hayward Touring Exhibition All That Is Solid Melts Into Air. The invitation gave us an opportunity to delve into Manchester’s rich socio-political history, and to select musicians and filmmakers we felt represented the different pockets of culture the North West has to offer. We commissioned artist duo and identical twins Hannah and Amy Buckley to work with broadside ballad performer Jennifer Reid to produce a new audio/visual work.

Artist statement

"David Buckley, our father, resides in Stockport and it is through him we learnt to see the beauty in industry. To appreciate steam trains, craftmanship, skill and design. Throughout our childhood and to this day he has talked passionately about great engineers such as Isambard Kingdom Brunel and regardless of our gender he expected us to help in all his DIY endeavours. His ability to fix pretty much any object we plcaed in fron of him made him a traditionally masculine figure in our lives. He was our measuring stick of manliness and through his knowledge our hero. Naturally, as we hear thirty, he has become more human in our eyes. Using Brunel as a starting point this is intended to be a portrait of our father which celebrates this daughter/father relationship." - Hannah and Amy Buckley

Hannah Buckley is a performer and maker based in the North of England (graduating from the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in 2010 she obtained a BPA in Contemporary Dance). She makes work about human experience from a personal perspective. She is interested in the complexity of human co existence - questioning the way we live and creating space to imagine new realities. She uses imagery, stories and movement to express real experiences and contemporary issues. She hopes her work is honest and thought provoking, with a sense of humour. 

Amy Buckley was born in Stockport (UK) and lives in Brooklyn, New York. Her work is rooted in physical experience. [Graduating from Parsons School of Design in 2013 she obtained a BFA in Photography]. Amy collaborates with her twin sister Hannah Buckley, a contemporary dancer, to create video and performance work. Her work has been shown in a range of venues from traditional art galleries like The Manchester Art Gallery, to film festivals around the UK, and as part of site specific commissions such as The Whitworth Pub Crawl. She has been involved in projects for Time Magazine, Garage Magazine, and Wallpaper Magazine. 

Jennifer Reid is a broadside ballad performer and local historian. Hailing from Middleton (UK), she has volunteered at Chetham's Library, the Working Class Movement Library and various other local institutions. Her interests lie in Lancashire folk music and how the broadside ballads of Manchester can reveal intimate detail about Victorian society. Since completing an Advanced Diploma in Local History at Oxford University she regularly works with artist Jeremy Deller and has performed at Manchester City Art Gallery, Nottingham Castle Art Gallery, Chetham's Library for a Newsnight segment, Sidmouth Folk Week, Wythenshawe Hall, Band on the Wall, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester International Festival, on BBC Radio 2, 3 and 6 and the BFI Southbank.