Artist Hetain Patel has won this year’s Film London Jarman Award prize.

Hetain Patel uses humour and the language of popular culture to highlight familiarity within the exotic. He was born in Bolton and currently lives in London and in between spent time working in the East Midlands. He was awarded the prize for two film works, Don’t Look At The Finger (2017), commissioned by Film and Video Umbrella with Manchester Art Gallery and QUAD, and The Jump (2015).

The Film London Jarman Award is a prestigious annual prize which recognises and supports the most innovative UK-based artists working with moving image, and celebrates the spirit of experimentation, imagination and innovation in the work of emerging artist filmmakers. Launched in 2008 and inspired by visionary filmmaker Derek Jarman, the Award offers financial assistance and the opportunity to produce new work.

Patel exhibited the artworks as an exhibition at the venue in 2017. Don’t Look at the Finger presents a wedding ceremony where bodies speak physically and seek human connection through ritual, combat and signed languages; and The Jump, which relocates the world of Hollywood superhero action films into Patel’s grandma’s house along with seventeen family members. The artworks use the artist’s fascination with staging archetypal Hollywood action scenes within domestic settings and employing Patel’s characteristic humour. The films, crafted into a single multi-screen installation, create an immersive cinematic experience that is in turns playful, suspenseful and occasionally ominous.

Hetain Patel had previously exhibited work in QUAD as part of Doug Fishbone’s Leisure Land Golf exhibition in 2016 and has been one of QUAD’s Patrons since 2018.

Peter Bonnell, QUAD Senior Curator, said:

QUAD is delighted at the news that our patron and exhibiting artist Hetain Patel has won the prestigious Jarman award. In 2017 QUAD co-commissioned, with FVU and Manchester Art Gallery, Hetain’s stunning film work ‘Don’t Look at the Finger’. Support and help in the development of such an important artist is one of the many reasons why QUAD exists: to make great new artworks and to share them with our audiences.