Doors 7:30p
Program 8:00p

UnionDocs
352 Onderdonk Ave
Ridgewood, NY

We’re delighted to welcome artist and filmmaker Jessica Sarah Rinland for a presentation and conversation around her work Extramission: The Capture of Glowing Eyes. Through a rich interplay of thermal imaging, archival photography, and conservation footage, Rinland explores the intersections of vision, technology, and colonial histories of collection and relocation.

Drawing on early theories of sight and the pioneering work of wildlife photographer George Shiras 3rd, the project interrogates the duality of documentation—as both an act of preservation and an echo of past violences. From taxidermy restoration at London’s Natural History Museum to the return of endangered species to Argentina, Extramission considers the ways contemporary care practices reveal historical entanglements.

This talk offers a unique opportunity to hear Rinland discuss the research, methodologies, and critical questions that shape her practice, rooted in ideas of conservation and the politics of looking. Don’t miss it!

Bios

Argentine-British artist filmmaker, JESSICA SARAH RINLAND is a recipient of numerous prizes including Special Mention at Locarno Film Festival, Best Film at DocumentaMadrid, Primer Premio at BIM (Bienale de Imagen en Movimiento Buenos Aires), Arts + Science Award at Ann Arbor Film Festival, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Schnitzer prize for excellence in the arts in 2017. Her work has been exhibited in Solo exhibitions at Tabakalera, San Sebastian in 2024, University of Tennessee’s Downtown Gallery, and Limbo Margate, and in group exhibitions including Southwark Park Galleries, Taipei Biennial, Somerset House, Bloomberg New Contemporaries.

She has had retrospectives of her films at Anthology Film Archives, Open City Documentary Festival, Doc’s Kingdom, Aricadoc, Eureka Film Festival, Curtocircuito, London Short Film Festival and Flaherty Film Seminar. Residencies include Film Studies Center at Harvard University, Somerset House Studios, Flaherty Seminar Fellow, MacDowell, and Ikusmira Berriak. Her films are held in the British Film Institute’s collections.

She currently works as an educator at Harvard Summer School and Goldsmiths, previously at UCL, Wellesley College and Kingston University, and as a freelance cinematographer, and a projectionist at the Barbican Center. She holds a BA in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London and a MSc in Arts, Culture and Technology from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.