Sean Hillen and the New Wave of Photomontage

"Irelantis" is the title of the works and exhibits of the man Sean Hillen. As you can probably tell from the title of his works, he is Irish. He has decided to take up the art form of photomontage in order to speak out and recognise the troubles that the country has been going through in his lifetime. His photomontages are all done by him alone: he takes all the photographs for them and he cuts and pastes them. The first set of "Irelantis" was concerned about the war, and were therefore full of anxiety and fear. His second installment in "Irelantis" was more centred on love and peace. He wanted to settle people's anxieties. It all started as political satire, asking the question of civilisation or not. This is exactly what photomontage in the Weimar Culture was brining forth. If you are interested in seeing some of the work of Sean Hillen, you can check out his web-page.

Dialectical Montage with Roots in Epic Theatre

Dialectical Montage: the juxtaposing of specific scenes of a movie to determine a relationship between the two (or more).
Epic Theatre: Theatre which uses the "V-Effect" to break the audience's emotional bond with the play and alienates them from what's happening on stage.

These two concepts used together can be a very interesting combination. It is known that Bertolt Brecht liked to use technology in his plays, and in some of them he added a large screen in the background to show video footage. I was always curious as to what exactly he (or the directors who are adapting the play) chose to show on those screens as the play went on. I was able to find this out recently.

Recently at York Private School there was a production of Brecht's The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui. As I wasn't able to make it out to actually see the play when it was on stage, my friend, who went to that school, was able to see it. He told me they showed clips of Stalinist Regimes and Communist gatherings along with landscapes and such. As I wasn't able to see it, I am not sure, but it seems to me that the director decided to use dialectical montage to emphasize some specific points throughout the play.