Projections Part II: Film As
Painting is the second film festival curated by filmmaker Aaron Rose for
Roberts & Tilton. The films which
span 100 years of cinematic history and feature the works of both artists and
filmmakers, were selected to lead viewers to experience films as moving
paintings. Thirteen videos are
simultaneously operating within one large room of the gallery, creating a
cacophony of visual, sound and physical experiences for the viewer. Absorbing the gestalt of the moment is
challenging without following the numbered map of individual films to guide the
viewer to each artist/filmmaker’s piece. Rose’s goal of asking viewers to
analyze the relationship between film and painting by placing them within the
context of a technical installation in the gallery space is intriguing –
however it may be at the expense of the value of each of the films as stand-alone
artworks. Standout film pieces include Mike Mills’ ‘1979’, a collection of
hundreds of fast paced non-stop images of cultural and historical significance
of the 1970’s, Len Lye’s ‘A Colour Box’, created in 1935 combines Cuban dance
music with abstract painted designs, Jan Svankmajer’s ‘Dimensions of Dialogue’,
(1982), features two clay human heads that gauge each other by their eyes, trying
to figure out how to communicate without fighting by passing back and forth
objects in their mouths, Harry Smith’s ‘Early Abstractions 1941-1957’ a mixed
media film shown on an analog TV of moving painting imagery and Jeremy Blake’s
‘Angel Dust’, 2000 which features an animated digital series of grid-like forms
in varying color combinations set against a black background filled with specs
of white. Each film offers its own evocative narrative within the historical
time frame it was created and by placing these films within the context of one large installation is both
stimulating and thought provoking. The show runs through December 14th.
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| Len Lye 'A Colour Box' 1935 35mm Dufaycolour(color,sound) |
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