Obliteration Room by Yayoi Kusama: an interactive happening between colored stickers, children, and a white room canvas. Part of Kusama’s major solo exhibit “Look Now, See Forever” at the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia.
Yayoi Kusama, 2005
“Look Now, See Forever” from 19 November 2011 to 11 March 2012.
More:
Hey Bubbles’ photos of Obliteration Room
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Q. Why is a ghost such a messy eater?
A. Because he is always a goblin.
Q. Why did the skeleton go discothèque dancing?
A. To see the booooooogy man.
Q. What tops off a ghost’s ice cream sundae?
A. Whipped scream3.
Q. What is R.L. Stine’s favorite drink?
A. Purp GHOUL-AID.
Q. Why didn’t the skeleton see the transgressive, non-narrative experimental film?
A. He didn’t have the guts.
Are you a patron of spooky, obscure things like gouls, goblins, and journals of experimental media? Well, boo-gy down and check out INCITE, a fantastic journal of experiment media. There are five days left to support INCITE, so please consider kicking it: http://kck.st/incite3 — and check out the rare swag.
The forthcoming issue of INCITE, “New Ages,” features over 160 pages of writing, art work, interviews, scholarly articles, more than 20 full color images, and contributions by 25 artists, filmmakers, writers, curators, and scholars from across the U.S. and Canada. We recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for the printing of the issue, which ends in early November.
INCITE #3 aims at addressing the generational shifts and divides in today’s experimental film, video, and new media spheres, utilizing the 2010 International Experimental Media Congress as an opportunity for reflection. In addition to compiling a dossier of idiosyncratic reflections on the Congress, this issue also focuses on the renewed fascination with “New Age” spirituality, philosophy and aesthetics among contemporary media artists. You can view the Table of Contents for Issue #3 and read the Congress Dossier online.
Contributors include: Dominic Angerame, Jaimz Asmundson, Jeremy Bailey, Christina Battle, Thomas Beard, Roger Beebe, Michael Betancourt, Mireille Bourgeois, Jacob Ciocci and Jesse McLean, Clint Enns, Walter Forsberg, Brian L. Frye, Benj Gerdes, Brett Kashmere, Eliza Koch, Kevin McGarry, James Missen, Shana Moulton, Peter Nowogrodzki, Marisa Olson, Andrew James Paterson, Ken Paul Rosenthal, Ekrem Serdar, Leslie Supnet, Tess Takahashi. Cover design by Jacob Ciocci.
The website for the journal is here:
http://incite-online.net
Details about the Kickstarter campaign are here:
http://kck.st/incite3
Loretta, jeanneLIOTTA, 2003, 16mm, 4 min, sound by Carlo Altomare
Light and dark on film
Light and dark on screen
A telephone rings, a figure is seen.
Light and dark on film, light and dark on screen
The new and the Light
The new Light from the Dark make Gold.
Light and dark on film
Light and dark on screen
The old sound will ring; the new sound will ring.
Synopsis: An abstract moving rayogram in the form of a woman or an aria. Living-in-time experienced as a high drama, dissolving into the infinite. A dialectical manifestation of phenomena in flux, like any other movie.
www.jeanneliotta.net/loretta.html
More:
Jeanne Liotta’s website
Jeanna Liotta on vimeo
1966, 16mm, color/so, 15m
Frames are presented in sequential order.
“A very direct and subtle, very sad and funny look at nothing more or less than sexual frustration and aloneness. In its economy and cogency of imaging, HOLD ME surpasses any of Kuchar’s previous work. The odd blend of Hollywood glamour and drama with all-too-real life creates and inspires counterpoint of unattainable desire against unbearable actuality.”
— Ken Kelman
“This film could cheer an arthritic gorilla, and audiences, apparently sensitized by its blithely accurate representation of feelings few among them can have escaped, rise from their general stupor to cheer it back.”
— James Stoller, The Village Voice
More:
Watch this film and more Kuchar film over at UBU
A painting by the late George Kuchar.
Photo credit: Elisa Harkins.
If anyone has additional information on the painting, please comment. Apparently this photograph was snapped at NEXT, Chicago, year unknown.
.-. . . .-. .-. .-. `' .-. .-. . .-. .-. | |-| |- |( |- `' `-. |-| | | | | ' ' ` `-' ' ' `-' `-' ` ' `-' `-' ' .-. .-. .-. . . .-. . . .-. .-. | | |- | |-| | |\| |.. `-. `-' ' ' ' ` `-' ' ` `-' `-' .-. . . . .-. .-. .-. | |\| | | |- |- `-' ' ` `-' `-' ' `-' . . . .-. .-. .-. . . . .-. . . .-. . . .-. .-. .-. .-. | | | | | |( | |-| | | | | | |\| |.. |- | | |( `.'.' `-' ' ' ' ' ` `-' `-' `.' `-' ' ` `-' ' `-' ' ' , .-. .-. . . `' .-. .-. . . .-. .-. .-. .-. | `-. |\| `' | | |-| |- |( |- .' `-' `-' ' ` ' ' ' ` `-' ' ' `-' .
I rarely use exclamation points, but I include one in the title of this post for good reason: there are three days left to help Dirty Looks reach their kick-starter goal — they are so close — donators are compensated with swag and nobility. (Swag includes an ill DVD compilation, limited edition Michael Robinson art print, et cetera . . . more here.)
If you cannot contribute a donation, please promulgate. Click the “Share/save” button below this post to email, tweet, FB, google + google=google (?).
More information:
Dirty Looks is a roaming series held on the last Wednesday of the month. Designed to trace contemporary queer aesthetics through historical works, Dirty Looks presents quintessential GLBT film and video alongside up-and-coming artists and filmmakers.
Visit http://dirtylooksnyc.org to see our past programs.
In contributing to this Kickstarter, you are ensuring the continuation of our programming and supporting the filmmakers, artists, graphic designers and volunteers that make our series possible. You are also ensuring the wider distribution of these works through our touring program.
We have been running since January 2011, screening in venues like the alternative space PARTICIPANT INC, P.P.O.W Gallery and the rooftop project space Silvershed. Our suggested ticket price frequently helps us to cover the rental of 16mm prints and artist DVDs, a cost which ranges from $150 – $300+ per event. Your support will go to:
- Cover all print rentals and facilities fees
- Artist honorariums for guest speakers and participants
- Produce our lengthy program notes
- Intern stipends and payment of our projectionist staff
- Graphic design of our promotional materials
- Fund the tour of these rare and important works across the country.
A West-Coast tour is already in the works, with two destinations presently committed. Please contribute so that we can spread these voices to a national audience.
More:
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ABOUT THE SHOW:
Beautiful Friend, this is the end! My Only Friend, the end! Of our elaborate plans, the end! After approximately 778 days,72 artists, and 12 group exhibitions of the most contemporary of the contemporary arts, BEN RUSSELL offers you a misty-eyed finale to what has undoubtedly been the greatest curatorial collaboration this city may have ever known. What with our lease expiring at the end of July and one of our directors leaving Chicago indefinitely for Parts Unknown,BEN RUSSELL : US will be our 13th and final show. And so: in pre-memorium and now-celebration of the hyper-intellectual pseudo-aesthetic alliance betwixt Brandon Alvendia (aka Chicago’s Best Artist) and Ben Russell (aka Chicago’s Best Local Filmmaker) and ummm You (Chicago’s Best Audience), the umpteen artists participating in BEN RUSSELL :US represent a veritable smörgåsbord of artistic alliances as drawn across fraternal, familial, romantic, pedagogical, and altruistic lines. Hand-picked for their collective sensibilities and their beguiling confidence in the generative power of directed camaraderie, these are artists that work together because they live/work/love together – they are US, plain and simple.
Inasmuch as US is “we” and “we” is BEN RUSSELL, we will exit as we entered, 25 months prior: A Lazy Sunday Opening, With Grilled Meats and Un-Meats, Libations and Fireworks and Goodwill Aplenty. A week shy of Independence Day, we will send bottle rockets to the sky while interrogating the monumental semiotics of national identification (OKÓN); we will hold hands and dive into the virtual summertime sea, hunting electric crabs and manatee-smiles (TM SISTERS). We will consume live Ham Dances (POOPER & PIZZA DOG) and roast the last marshmallows and bask in the illuminating/illuminated minimalist monolith to the challenges of communication (HIDEOUS BEAST) as our psychic hearts and Six Degrees of Separation to Everyone Everywhere are mapped out in chalk dust and memory (CO-PROSPERITY SCHOOL). From Miami to Mexico City, Bridgeport to Pilsen, and Inner to Outer Space, BEN RUSSELL : US is the US in your USA, the WE in your WE THE PEOPLE, the NOSOTROS in your NOS(O)TR(O)ADAMUS. BEN RUSSELL : US is Goodbye to our Past and Hello to our bright uncertain Future.
—–
THE CO-PROSPERITY SCHOOL is an Artist-Run School for and about the advancement and understanding of contemporary Chicago Art. Through guest speakers and class member presentations we shine a light on the contemporary art scene of Chicago. One of our goals is to break down the panel discussion dialogue of Chicago’s art and bring it to a more informal group discussion format in which shapers of Chicago’s Art World themselves tell of the contemporary scene. Members can discuss their own work, or the work of others. Past guests have included Daniel Tucker, Hamza Walker, Paul Klein, Duncan MacKenzie, Cody Hudson, Carolne Picard, Jason Foumberg, Carrie Gundersdorf, Tom Torluemke, Tom Burtonwood, Aron Packer, James Duignan, Nandipha Mntambo, and Barbara Koenen.
HIDEOUS BEAST is a collaborative effort between two artists, Josh Ippel and Charlie Roderick. Through organizing structured participatory events we attempt to encourage cultural activity outside the bounds of mainstream entertainment and fabricated desire. Critical of the audience as a passive participant, Hideous Beast seeks to coordinate events in which an acknowledged exchange between the event (as entertainment) and the spectator (as collaborator) can generate meanings beyond traditional formalized modes of entertainment.
It is their intent as artists and beings in common to shift perceptions of authorship and participation within the realm of constructed entertainment and art generated activities. This might change, though. HIDEOUS BEAST is always looking for others to collaborate with, both in carrying out our own projects and realizing others. Please contact them with any ideas for activities or events.
BEN RUSSELL features a rotating roster of Chicago-based and non-Chicago-based artists and will be open for viewings one night a month and by appointment, as needed.
Ben Rivers, UK / Ireland, 2006, 16mm, 5 min, B/w, Sound
A five minute meditation upon the evolutionary journey of mankind; the esoteric climb of man en masse; whence, how, and whither.
Frames are presented in sequential order.
More: Ben Rivers’ website.
MERCURIAL MADNESS by Kerry Laitala
Below is the schedule for 2011 Chicago Underground Film Festival, which is this week, with opening night on Thursday, June 2. The 18th annual CUFF runs June 2–June 9 at the Gene Siskel Film Center.
The festival will screen new work from Deborah Stratman, Ben Russell, Jesse McLean, Ben Rivers, Kerry Laitala, Leighton Pierce, Michael Robinson, Jodie Mack, and many more.
Click here for the robust schedule with stills and synopses. Click here for ticket information. More information at the CUFF website.
THURSDAY, JUNE 2nd
8:00PM
OPENING NIGHT
SOME GIRLS NEVER LEARN
2011, Jerzy Rose, USA, 80 min.
Interdimensional premiere!
with:
MONICA PANZARINO SINGS THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER
2011, Monica Panzarino, USA, 3 min.
FRIDAY, JUNE 3rd
6:00 PM
SHORTS PROGRAM: MY HEAD IS MY ONLY HOUSE UNLESS IT RAINS
2009-2010, Various directors, Various nations, 89 min.
TAMALPAIS Chris Kennedy, 14 min., 16mm, 2009, Canada
ANNE TRUITT, WORKING Jem Cohen, 13 min, 16mm on Video, 2009, USA
PERIPETEI’EM Andrew Mauset-Mooney, 3 min, 16mm on Video, 2009, USA
SECOND LAW: SOUTH LEH ST. Mike Gibisser, 14 min., 16mm, 2011, USA
RETROGRADE PREMONITION Leighton Pierce, 5 min,. Video, 2010, USA
PROJECTIONS Kendra Ryan, 3 min, Video, 2009, USA
ZEITRISS Quimu Casalprim i Suárez, 11 min,, Video, 2009, Germany
HOME MOVIE John Price, 27 min, 35mm, 2010, Canda
8:00PM
(Repeats Thursday, June 9th, 8:00PM)
THE BALLAD OF GENESIS AND LADY JAYE
Marie Losier, 75 min.,16mm on Video, 2010, USA
with:
IRMA Charles Fairbanks, 12 min., 16mm on Video, 2010, USA
LÁZSLO LASSÚ Ben Popp, 3 min., Video, 2010, USA
10:00 PM
(Repeats Wednesday, June 8th, 8:00PM)
PROFANE
2011, Usama Alshaibi, USA, 78 min.
with:
TEARS CANNOT RESTORE HER: THEREFORE, I WEEP 2011, Jennifer Reeder, USA 10 min.
SATURDAY, JUNE 4th
1:00 PM
AND AGAIN
2010, Adele Horne, USA, 56 min.
with:
DEVIL’S GATE 2011, Laura Kraning, USA, 20 min.
THE VOICE OF GOD 2010, Bernd Lützeler, India/Germany, 10 min.
2:00 PM
SHORTS PROGRAM: THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTE BLUES (OR THE BIG DIG)
2009-2011, Various directors, USA, 90 min.
CURRENT (REPRISE) Brian Doyle, 7 min., super 8 on Video, 2010, USA
HISTORY MINOR Ryan Garrett, 19 min., 16mm on Video, 2010, USA
ARSENIC Robert Todd, 11 min, 16mm, 2011, USA
BROAD CHANNEL Sarah Christman, 14 min., 16mm, 2010, USA
THE SOUL OF THINGS Dominic Angerame, 15 min., 16mm, 2010, USA
MEASURES KINDLING JB Mabe, 30 sec., 16mm, 2010, USA
TO ANOTHER JB Mabe, 57 sec., 16mm, 2010, USA
YOUNG BIRD SEASON Nellie Kluz, 19 min., Video, 2011, USA
4:00 PM
SHORTS PROGRAM: POMPADOUR SWAMP
2009-2011, Various directors, Various nations, 90 min.
HOW TO HAVE A SEIZURE Michael Wawzenek, 3 min., 16mm, 2011, USA
BLOOD & CINNAMON Jessie Mott and Steve Reinke, 6 min., Video, 2010, USA
UNCONTROLLABLE JOY FOR LIFE Kari Corbett and Crispin Rosenkranz, 7 min., Video, 2010, USA
CHAINSAW FOUND JESUS Spencer Parsons, 22 min., Video, 2010, USA
UNICORNHOLE Lucas Dimick and Dax Norman, 5 min., Video, 2011, USA
DARE DOUBLE James, N Kienitz Wilkins, Eugene Wasserman and Dan Fridman, 29 min., Video, 2010, USA
UNSUBSCRIBE #3: GLITCH ENVY Jodie Mack, 6 min., 16mm, 2010, USA
SECOND FIRING Kelly Oliver and Keary Rosen, 3 min., Video, 2010, USA
ZOLTAN: THE HUNGARIAN GANGSTER OF LOVE Justin Reardon, 14 min., 16mm on Video, 2010, USA
5:15 PM
(Repeats Tuesday June 7th, 6:00PM)
SHORTS PROGRAM: I’M GONNA BOOGLARIZE YOU BABY
2009-2011, Various directors, Various nations, 87 min.
SPACEBOY Mike Olenick Video, 2009, USA
MERCURIAL MADNESS Kerry Lataila, 7 min., Video, 2010, USA
THESE HAMMERS DON’T HURT US Michael Robinson, 13 min., Video, 2010, USA
AGAINST CINEMA Alberto Cabrera Bernal, 9 min., Video, 2010, Spain
THE PROGNOSTICATOR (OR WE ARE ALL PYTHAGOREANS NOW) Brent Coughenour, 26 min., Video, 2011, USA
CEIBAS EPILOGUE – THE WELL OF REPRESENTATION Evan Meaney, 7 min., Video, 2011, USA
THE BLOCKBUSTER TAPES Daniel Martinico, 6 min., Video, 2009, USA
LONG LIVE THE NEW FLESH Nicolas Provost, 14 min., Video, 2009, Belgium
6:00 PM
THE COLOR WHEEL
2011, Alex Ross Perry, USA, 83 min.
8:00 PM
(Repeats Wednesday, June 8th, 6:00PM)
BATTLE FOR BROOKLYN
2011, Michael Galinsky and Suki Hawley, USA, 93 min.
10:00 PM
(Repeats Tuesday, June 7th, 8:00PM)
SNOW ON THA BLUFF
2010, Damon Russell, USA, 79min.
with:
WE’RE LEAVING 2010, Zachary Treitz, USA, 12min.
SUNDAY, JUNE 5th
1:00 PM
(Repeats Thursday, June 9th, at 6:00 PM)
SHORTS PROGRAM: A CARROT IS AS CLOSE AS A RABBIT GETS TO A DIAMOND
2008-2011, Various directors, Various nations, 87 min.
THE MAN WHO WENT OUTSIDE Jennet Thomas, 10 min., Video 2008, UK
NEGATING THE INCREASING POWERLESSNESS OF THE MOST PHOTOGRAPHED THING IN AMERICA Olivia Ciummo, 5 min., Video, 2010, USA
POSTFACE Frédéric Moffet, 8 min., Video, 2011, USA
LIKE Luis Arnias, 3 min., 16mm, 2010, USA
ACCEPTING THE IMAGE Karel De Cock, 19 min., Video, 2010, Belgium
BATHING IN MILK Jenna Feldman, 18 min., Video, 2010, USA
SLIPSTREAM D. Rickman, 4 min., Video, 2010, USA
MAGIC FOR BEGINNERS Jesse McLean, 21 min., Video, 2010, USA
1:45 PM
TOTAL BADASS
2010, Bob Ray, USA, 91 min.
with:
THE FOREST 2010, Steven Summers, USA, 16 min
4:00 PM
THE OBSERVERS
2010, Jacqueline Goss, USA, 69 min.
with:
TRYPPS # 7 (BADLANDS) 2010, Ben Russell, USA, 10 min.
IMUM COELI (BOTTOM OF THE SKY) 2011, Mirka Morales, USA, 6 min.
EVERYTHING IS EVERYDAY 2011, Patrick Tarrant, UK, 10 min.
6:00 PM
(theater 1)
SHORTS PROGRAM: FLASH GORDON’S APE
2010-2011, Various directors, Various nations, 97 min.
THESE BLAZEING STARRS! Deborah Stratman, 14 min. 16mm, 2011, USA
BEADS Andrew Rosinski, 8 min., 35mm on Video, 2010, USA
A TIME SHARED UNLIMITED Zachary Epcar, 10 min., 16mm on Video, 2010, USA
ALTER HUMAN Lars Stiltberg, 20 min., Video, 2010, Sweden
SLOW ACTION Ben Rivers, 45 min., 16mm, 2010, UK
8:00 pm
(theater 2)
SHORTS PROGRAM: CARDBOARD CUTOUT SUNDOWN
2010, Various Directors, USA, 89 min.
THE GARDEN Ann Steuernagel, 10 min., Video, 2010, USA
DARLING Kate McCabe, 4 min., 16mm on Video, 2010, USA
HOPPER REPAIR Ross Nugent, 5 min., 16mm, 2010, USA
ILLNESS MAGNIFIED Julia Fuller, 17 min., Video, 2010, Video, USA
SHOALS Melika Bass, 52 min., 16mm on Video, 2011, USA
8:00 PM
(theater 1)
CLOSING NIGHT FILM!
HEAVY METAL PICNIC
2010, Jeff Krulik and John Heyn, USA, 66 min.
with:
HEAVY METAL PARKING LOT 1986, Jeff Krulik and John Heyn, USA, 17 min.
MOBY DICK 2010, Tony Balko, USA, 8 min.
MONDAY, JUNE 6th
6:00 PM
HALFLIFERS AND FRIENDS: REACTIONS IN REACTION
1991-2007, Various directors, Various nations, 75 min.
Curated by HalfLifers
8:00 PM
HORI SMOKU SAILOR JERRY: THE LIFE OF NORMAN K. COLLINS
2008, Erich Weiss, USA, 77 min.
More information at the CUFF website.
All Through the Night, Michael Robinson, 2008, 4 min, digital video
Michael Robinson‘s All Through the Night (2008) is a trenchant journey of melancholy and longing; a four minute pastiche of found footage, found audio, and found music. A cacophony of sound bites, shuttering, stuttering, and Cyndi Lauper. The titular track by Cyndi Lauper is looped beyond recognition apropos as the opening edit jogs and shuttles; as with the pacing that hops, skips, and jumps o’er the misty water to find a Priestess on the bow of an oneiric sail boat, directing emotion with her movement. Perhaps the Priestess embodies spirituality and the sail boat forward movement.
Spiritual movement, a spirit journey guided by a female higher power; however, on the lower plane of existence is the paradox of knowing and not knowing, the illusions of Maya, expressed in the cavernous animated sequence where an older figure explains to the youth that, “I told you, time and time again — now remember: flowers, beauty, joy and love, are all illusions. They do not exist — at all — forget them.”
Undulating architecture follows, tinged in blue against black: blue emotion, black uncertainty.
“There is no room for love.”
Oh, but there is room for love. For some, this glum line is a salutary reminder that love and beauty are omniscient — but there is a tendency to overlook it in everything, everyday — sometimes the sad part is time and space. But every emotion holds its opposite, and the effect of every action its polarity. Each hold balance, each direct change for the better, for the progress of all.
Robinson’s All Through the Night is wind that blows the mind and spirit. The more you know, the more you don’t know. The more you remember, the more you forget; the more you forget, the more you remember — the good ole story of love and beauty, movement and transformation.
— AR
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