Jo Lawrence’s films integrate stop motion animation, puppetry, photography and mixed media elements. During her first animation residency at Bradford’s National Media Museum Jo developed ‘Glow’, the film was commissioned by Channel 4 and screened in 2007. In 2008 she was Digital Media Artist in residence at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, where she began development of ‘Glover’. The film was produced in response to research of two items in the museums collections - the medieval Ebstorf map and an exquisite pair of sixteenth century gloves.

Films often refer to transformation of some kind, themes that resurface continually include death, science, and fashion , and anything that offers the potential of a dark, humorous sense of the uncanny.  All films have been screened widely at animation festivals and ‘Glover’ was nominated for inclusion in the finals of the British Animation Awards. The production of Pavementopera which was commissioned for Tate Britain (Tate Late ’09 ) has been followed in 2012 by ‘Barnet Fair’ ( online and museum installation ) for the National Media Museum and ‘Ylem’; an Animate Projects/ Lupus Films commission for Channel 4’s Random Acts which also won the Screengrab Media Award 2012. 

In 2014 Jo was commissioned to produce the sting for Bradford Animation Festival, and The Land of Lace (an animated digital opera) was produced for Mahogany Opera. Her residency at Four Corners Gallery resulted in the film, ’The woman who owns the sun’.

Datacosm produced in 2019 was a Collusion commission, a collaboration between Jo and Cambridge Consultants. The film Datacosm was produced in response to ‘The Aficionado’, artificial intelligence developed by Cambridge Consultants, capable of analysing music input live from a pianist and outputting selected footage to reflect the genre. Datacosm was presented as an installation this year at the Collusion Showcase event in Cambridge.

After a period working as one of two artists in residence at Lightworks in Blackpool, Jo finalised work on a film installation ‘Llygad y Lleuad’ ( The Eye of the Moon) for Pontio Gallery, Bangor, Wales which was screened in November 2021 in Pontio’s main atrium to celebrate Caradog Prichard’s iconic novel, Un Nos Ola Leuad (One Moonlit Night).

Jo is currently working on a series of personal projects for film and animation incorporating experimentation in ceramics and printmakting.

FILMOGRAPHY

2021 Llygad y Lleuad ( The Eye of the Moon)

2019 Datacosm

2015  The woman who owns the sun

2014  The Land of Lace

2014  Sting for Bradford Animation Festival

2012  Ylem

2012  Barnet Fair

2011  Square Peg

2010  Glover

2009  Pavementopera

2007  Glow

2003  Zeuxis

2002  0800

2001  Red Thread