Emily Wardill

The films of British artist Emily Wardill are brilliant cinematic labyrinths. Visually striking and playfully rigorous, they draw upon an array of sources– underground theater, psychoanalytic case studies, the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche and Jacques Rancière, and even the game logic of Nintendo Wii–to pose fundamental questions about vision, representation, and media and their role in how we come to know ourselves. Wardill has been the recipient of much recent critical acclaim: Tate Modern film curator Stuart Comer rated her film The Diamond (Descartes’ Daughter) (2008) as one of his top ten picks of 2008 and The Guardian newspaper deemed her its “artist of the week.”

Film London and Channel 4 in association with the UK’s Whitechapel Gallery have announced that the winner of this year’s Jarman Award is Emily Wardill.

Wardill was announced as the winner of the award at an event at the Whitechapel on Tuesday, October 5, following screenings of work by Wardill and the other 2010 shortlisted artists Spartacus Chetwynd, Ben Rivers, and Zineb Sedira.

Wardill receives a ash prize and a broadcast commission to make four artworks for Channel 4’s Three Minute Wonder strand. The rest of the shortlist receive $1,600 each. This year’s jury included: John Akomfrah, filmmaker; Iwona Blazwick, director of the Whitechapel Gallery; Avi Grewal of Channel 4 documentaries; Mark Rappolt, editor of ArtReview; artist Gillian Wearing; and Stuart Comer, film curator at Tate Modern.