Monthly Archives: January 2019
the one about the bird
I, An Old Man – Video Poem
Blind (Spoken Word Poetry and Dance)
Ah Kung in the Philippine Jungle, 1945 – Poetry by Kenji C. Liu
Leningrad – Kolshik
Luke Fowler
Luke Fowler & Lee Patterson: Performance for Invented Acoustical Tools and Synthesis
Artists Luke Fowler and Lee Patterson present their response to Tony Conrad’s Invented Acoustical Tools 1969 – 2014 by performing on instruments they have made themselves, and exploring the work of Conrad. Taking place at Inverleith House, this performance has been created in direct response to the exhibition and incorporates some of the works on display.
Tony Conrad: Invented Acoustical Tools 1969 – 2014 is on at Inverleith House until the 18th January 2015.
Shana Moulton
Morning Ritual by Shana Moulton
Frieze Film is a series of commissioned artists’ films screened at Frieze London and showcased on Channel 4’s Random Acts strand; an experimental platform that allows artists to creatively express themselves through the medium of film.
Born in 1976 in Fresno, California, New York based artist—Shana Moulton fuses performance art with social commentary. Drawing parallels with a range of subjects from consumerism, commercialised New Age philosophies and other artistic styles, such as Land Art. Moulton also looks to individual artists as inspiration, including Mondrian and Georgia O’Keeffe.
Her videos dip into the aesthetics of the late 1970s and 1980s and were conceived as a series entitled ‘Whispering Pines’ (2002–). “Morning Ritual” also features the fictional character Cynthia–an alter ego played by the artist—as a bored, hypochondriac housewife. The short gets progressively more surreal as Moulton adds psychedelic sequences, soundtracked by music from Nick Hallett and vocals by Daisy Press.
“Whispering Pines” by Shana Moulton
This video was featured in “Acting Out,” the group exhibition guest-curated by Erin Riley-Lopez at the Bronx River Art Center from December 3, 2010 – January 8, 2011.
The artists deliberately perform—in front of a camera, before an audience, or both— acting out their narratives and characters. Costuming, location, and props, among other elements, play an especially important role in these videos, as they provide the foundation for the entire scenario that is performed by the artists. Regardless of their strategies—which range from quiet interior reflection without monologue or dialogue, to more assertive questioning and discussion—they all share a keen interest in tackling normative societal structures, traditional hierarchical roles, and what it means to be a woman.
A Brief History of Shana Moulton & Whispering Pines | “New York Close Up” | Art21
Should an artist separate herself from the character she creates? In this film, artist Shana Moulton traces the development of her ongoing video and performance series “Whispering Pines” and its central protagonist Cynthia. Shana charts the various ways in which fiction and autobiography meld and diverge in the character of Cynthia, played by the artist herself. The title of the series is an homage to David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks” and adopts the name of Shana’s childhood home: a trailer park for seniors near Yosemite, California. Featuring video and music from several episodes of “Whispering Pines”—a mix of live action, computer animation, and original songs by Jacob Ciocci and Nick Hallett.
Shana Moulton (b. 1976, Oakhurst, California, USA) lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
CREDITS | “New York Close Up” Created & Produced by: Wesley Miller & Nick Ravich. Editor: Mary Ann Toman. Cinematography: Andrew David Watson. Additional Camera: Don Edler & John Marton. Key Grip: John Marton. Sound: Nicholas Lindner. Associate Producer: Ian Forster. Production Assistant: Paulina V. Ahlstrom, Don Edler & Maren Miller. Design: Open. Artwork: Shana Moulton. Additional Photography: Shana Moulton. Music: Jacob Ciocci & Nick Hallett. An Art21 Workshop Production. © Art21, Inc. 2011. All rights reserved.
“New York Close Up” is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Additional support provided by The 1896 Studios & Stages.
For more info: art21.org/newyorkcloseup
Daniel Arsham
RASHAAD NEWSOME
Rashaad Newsome is a multidisciplinary artist whose work blends several practices together including: collage, sculpture, video, music, computer programming and performance, to form an altogether new field. Best known for his visually stunning collages housed in custom frames, Newsomes’ work is deeply invested in how images used in media and popular culture communicate distorted notions of power. Using the equalizing force of sampling, he crafts compositions that surprise in their associative potential and walk the tightrope between intersectionality, social practice and abstraction. Newsomes’ works opposes cultural essentialisms. They lead us into a realm of uncertainty, in which the symbols presented transform, but are nonetheless made tangible.
P31:10, 2013, collage in custom frame with automotive paint, 64 radius X 8 depth IN
Newsome lives and works in New York City. He was born in 1979 in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he received a BFA in Art History at Tulane University in 2001. In 2004, he received a certificate of study in Digital Post Production from Film/Video Arts Inc. (NYC). In 2005 he studied MAX/MSP Programming at Harvestworks Digital Media Art Center (NYC). He has exhibited and performed in galleries, museums, institutions, and festivals throughout the world including: The Whitney Museum (NYC), Brooklyn Museum (NYC), MoMAPS1 (NYC), SFMOMA (CA), New Orleans Museum of Art (LA), Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris, France), The Garage Center for Contemporary Culture (Moscow, Russia), and MUSA (Vienna, Austria). Newsome’s work is in numerous public collections including the Whitney Museum of American Art (NYC), The Brooklyn Museum of Art (NYC), The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (CA), and The New Britain Museum of American Art (CT). In 2010 he participated in the Whitney Biennial (NYC), and in 2011 Greater New York at MoMAPS1 (NYC). His many honors and awards for his work include a 2016 Tamarind Institute Artist Residency, 2014 Headlands Center for the Arts Visiting Artist Residency, a 2011 The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award, a 2010 Urban Artist Initiative Individual Artist Grant, and a 2009 Rema Hort Mann Foundation Visual Arts Grant.
Run Lola Run
Run Lola Run (original German title Lola rennt, translates as Lola Runs) is a 1998 film by German screenwriter and director Tom Tykwer, starring Franka Potente as Lola.
In the movie “Run Lola Run” (Lola rennt in German-1998), the butterfly effect is represented more clearly. There, minor and almost sub-conscious actions in everyday life can be seen to have gross and wide spread effects upon the future. For example, the fact that Lola bumps into someone instead of passing by may lead to a painful death after suffering paralysis. As such, seemingly inconsequential actions can be seen to have drastic long-term results.
Lola’s boyfriend Manni is trying to prove his loyalty to a gang boss. Manni’s final task in a particular job is to deliver 100,000 Deutsche Marks to his boss Ronnie. Everything goes wrong. Lola’s moped is stolen and she is unable to transport Manni to the meeting place. After waiting for her Manni decides to use the metro. He accidentally leaves the bag, with its 100,000 Marks, in the underground after an encounter with a bum and two ticket-controllers. The money is then found by the homeless man. Manni realises what he’s done and soon makes a desperate phone call to Lola, asking her to think of something, to help him. If he does not have the money by the meeting at 12 noon, he will certainly be killed. Lola promises to get him the 100,000 marks. Manni warns her that he will rob a supermarket on the street corner if Lola has not come in 20 minutes. Can Lola get him the money and save his life? It is at this point that the three sequential alternative realities begin.
The film features several allusions to Alfred Hitchcock’s film Vertigo. Like that film, it features recurring images of spirals, such as the ‘Spirale’ Cafe behind Manni’s phone box and the spiral staircase down which Lola runs. In addition, the painting on the back wall of the casino of a woman’s head seen from behind is based on a shot in Vertigo: Tykwer disliked the empty space on the wall behind the roulette table and commissioned production designer Alexander Manasse to paint a picture of Kim Novak as she appeared in Vertigo. Manasse could not remember what she looked like in the film and so decided to paint the famous shot of the back of her head. The painting took fifteen minutes to complete.
There are also several references to German culture in the film. The most notable is the use of Hans Paetsch as a narrator. Paetsch is a famous voice of children’s stories in Germany, recognized by millions. Many of the small parts are cameo roles by famous German actors (for example the bank teller). Also, two quotes by German football legend Sepp Herberger appear: “The ball is round, the game lasts 90 minutes, everything else is pure theory,” and, “After the game is before the game.” (wikipedia)
_________
The meaning of the butterfly
Why pop culture loves the ‘butterfly effect,’ and gets it totally wrong
By Peter Dizikes
June 8, 2008
SOME SCIENTISTS SEE their work make headlines. But MIT meteorologist Edward Lorenz watched his work become a catch phrase. Lorenz, who died in April, created one of the most beguiling and evocative notions ever to leap from the lab into popular culture: the “butterfly effect,” the concept that small events can have large, widespread consequences. The name stems from Lorenz’s suggestion that a massive storm might have its roots in the faraway flapping of a tiny butterfly’s wings.
Photography & Intermedia 