Fall 2003 - Material & Illusion (Visiting Artist Ernie Gehr)

The artists included in Material & Illusion produce works grounded in the material substrates of physical and socio-cultural forms of moving images, works that come into being at the far edge of cinematic equilibrium and its basic narrative constructs.  These works employ aesthetic and conceptual strategies to explore the intersection of reality, myth and illusion through processes of birth, death, re-animation and transduction.  They open up alternative aspects of ephemeral and subjective experiences of visual perception, time, history and cultural memory that are important components of the diversity of today’s contemporary art practices.  —Patrick Clancy

September 12, 2003  

Stan Brakhage Retrospective Evening

Window Water Baby Moving, 1959, 12 min., 16mm film
Brakhage records the drama of the birth of his first child.
                       
Sirius Remembered, 1959, 12 min., 16mm film
“Suddenly I was faced with the death of a loved being which tended to undermine all my abstract thoughts of death.”  —Stan Brakhage
                                                           
Mothlight, 1963, 4 min., 16mm film
“Mothlight is a paradoxical preservation of pieces of dead moths in the eternal medium of light… which is life and draws the moth to death.”  —Ken Kelman
                                                                       
Prelude: Dog Star Man, 1961, 25 min., 16mm film     
A work complete in itself, Prelude is the opening statement of Brakhage’s epic 4-part drama of the creation of the universe. 
                       
Dog Star Man: Part 4, 1964, 5 min., 16mm film
“The question, ‘What is death like?’ is recognized as the lens through which we grasp the limitlessness of life.”  —P. Adams Sitney
           
Three Hand-Painted Films, 1986–90, 4 min., 70mm IMAX film transferred to 16mm film
“A work of hand-painted ‘moving visual thinking;’ colors and forms coursing, flowing, bursting, as if of fire and water – of the earth, of the body, of the mind.”  —Marilyn Brakhage                              
                                    Nightmusic, 1986, 30 sec.
                                    Rage Net, 1988, 30 sec.
                                    Glaze of Cathexis, 1990, 3 min.

Night Mulch, 2001, 2:30 min., 35mm film transferred to 16mm film     
“This hand-painted film is essentially about the interplay between hypnagogic vision and words, the effect of the one upon the other, the contest between the two.”  —Stan Brakhage
                                                           
Very, 2001, 3:30 min., 35mm film transferred to 16mm film     
“The second, of these companion films introduces ‘The Movies’ in addition to the closed-eye vision and language combination of Night Mulch.”  —Stan Brakhage

Chinese Series, 2003, 2:15 min., 35mm film transferred to 16mm film
This hand-scratched film is one of Brakhage’s last works.

September 19, 2003  

Filmmaker Ernie Gehr In Person

Shift, Ernie Gehr (USA), 1972–74, 9 min., 16mm film
“Cars and trucks on a city street are filmed from a height of several stories with angles so severe that traffic often seems to be sliding off the earth.”  —J. Hoberman, American Film

Rear Window, Ernie Gehr (USA), 1986 / 1991, 10 min., 16mm film
“A view from a Brooklyn apartment sublimates Hitchcock’s voyeurism into a frenzied engagement with the visible.”  —J. Hoberman, The Village Voice

Cotton Candy, Ernie Gehr (USA), 2001, 55 min., digital video, commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art
“Reflections upon a passing century by way of cinema, penny arcade automata and carnival amusements – ‘low’ forms of entertainment that have seized and spooked our imaginations, become major emblematic icons of twentieth century culture.”  —Ernie Gehr



September 26, 2003  

Orange Factory, Seoungho Cho (Korea), 2002, 11:38 min., video
“A haunted voice reads from Ryu Murakami’s Almost Transparent Blue, recalling experiences of pain and abandonment.”  —Electronic Arts Intermix

Stereoscope, William Kentridge (South Africa), 1999, 8:27 min., animated 35mm film transferred to DVD  
“Stereoscope’s Soho is essentially passive, sitting, waiting, withdrawn, accompanied only by an affectionate cat, his sole source of comfort and companionship –and paradoxically also the cipher of destruction and ultimate annihilation.”  —Marian Goodman Gallery, New York

Memo, William Kentridge (South Africa), 1993–94, 3 min., animated 35mm film transferred to DVD  
“Memo is a Kafka comedy in which simple office objects first escape from and finally overwhelm a middle-aged functionary.”  —Marian Goodman Gallery, New York

Zeno Writing, William Kentridge (South Africa), 2002, 11 min., 35mm film, 16mm film and mini DV transferred to DVD.  Soundtrack by Kevin Volans (South Africa/Ireland)
“Based on Italo Svevo’s 1923 novel Confessions of Zeno, Kentridge portrays the novel’s guilt-ridden main character within the broader social cataclysm of an engulfing world war.”  —Marian Goodman Gallery, New York

Paradise Crushed, Leslie Thornton (USA), 2003, 12. min., video
“Scraps of sound and image collide and recombine as the story of two children ‘raised by television’ buckles under the pressure of digital technologies, electronic surveillance and millennial apocalyptic fervor.”  —Electronic Arts Intermix

Two Minutes Out of Time, Pierre Huyghe (France), 2000, 4 min., digital Beta transferred to DVD
“AnnLee, a fictional character whose rights were acquired from a Japanese anime company, is now a 3-D animated protagonist in quest of authors, a product discussing her conditions and a bit of humanity.”  —Marian Goodman Gallery, New York

One Million Kingdoms, Pierre Huyghe (France), 2001, 7 min., digital Beta transferred to DVD
“The voice is a synthesized reproduction of the voice of Neil Armstrong, and AnnLee’s walk is as if through an unknown landscape with all its associations of quest and exploration.”  —Marian Goodman Gallery, New York