Various - Animated Painting (2007)
Sunday, August 3, 2008
The San Diego Museum of Art organized a state-of-the-art exhibition which showcases the latest trend in animated art by contemporary artists. It ran from October 13, 2007, to January 13, 2008, and featured 25 cinematic works by 14 international contemporary artists who adapt traditional painting and drawing methods to the concepts and technologies of animation.
Animated Painting presents some of the most compelling artists working with these new hybrid strategies which have been increasingly used by contemporary artists over the last several years.
The works on display show two predominant approaches in animation. While some artists are maintaining the practice of handmade images, which is immersed in styles of traditional drawing and painting or forms of conventional animation, other artists are working with live action sources that are either self-generated or taken from popular culture and then digitally recoded into a painterly style. Animated Painting shows how digital media is transforming older art forms and how contemporary artists are providing a fresh take on the popular, commercially-dominated art form of animation. By taking animation out of its commercial context and incorporating it into fine art, artists are able to accomplish results that are not necessarily found in its commercial use and that offer a timebased method in which to convey their message. The exhibition also highlights the widespread globalization of moving image art and its growing accessibility to new audiences.
“This is a groundbreaking and visually stunning exhibition. SDMA is proud to present these challenging works,” says the Museum’s executive director, Derrick Cartwright. “As digital art has grown in popularity over the past few years, museums have a broad responsibility to contextualize these representations. Animated Painting does an excellent job at making this work accessible to diverse audiences. The exhibition provides visitors with an opportunity to explore a growing trend in contemporary art and to enjoy a wide variety of new time-based works by leading international artists.” Highlights of Animated Painting include William Kentridge’s animated film Tide Table (2005); computer animated figures by Julian Opie that will be displayed outside of the Museum; Jeremy Blake’s digital video Sodium Fox (2005); and Sadie Benning’s video projection of hand-made drawings, Play Pause (2006). In addition, Wit Pimkanchanapong has been commissioned to create a site design for the exhibition space. The artist’s ceiling design is based on an analog progression of imagery and will be printed on sheets of suspended paper. Animated Painting also showcases the close relationship between contemporary art, popular culture, and progressive musical styles as several works feature new compositions and audio soundscapes.
The artists participating in the exhibition are the Barnstormers, Sadie Benning, Jeremy Blake, Sebastián Díaz Morales, Kota Ezawa, Ruth Gómez, William Kentridge, Ann Lislegaard, Takeshi Murata, Serge Onnen, Julian Opie, Wit Pimkanchanapong, Qiu Anxiong, and Robin Rhode.
Animated Painting is accompanied by a scholarly catalogue featuring essays by the exhibition’s curator Betti-Sue Hertz, animation studies scholar Suzanne Buchan, and media theorist Lev Manovich, an exhibition checklist, artist biographies, and a DVD with sample clips of the works in the exhibition. After its run at the San Diego Museum of Art, the exhibition will be on view at the Centro Cultural Tijuana (CECUT) in Tijuana, Mexico, from October 1 through December 31, 2008, and at the Faulconer Gallery at Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa, from February 6 through April 19, 2009.
Animated Painting is organized by the San Diego Museum of Art. This exhibition is made possible by the generous support of the Krichman Family Fund of the Jewish Community Foundation, the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, and the African Arts Council of the San Diego Museum of Art. Additional support is provided by the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture, the County of San Diego’s Community Enhancement Program, and members of the San Diego Museum of Art.
Available at KaraGarga or Amazon.
at 10:50 PM
Destroy All Monsters & Mike Kelley & Carey Loren - Grow Live Monsters (2007)
Monday, July 28, 2008
Grow Live Monsters is a selection from short home-made no-budget 8mm, super 8 and 16mm film fantasies made between 1971-1976. Most of the films revolved around a group of friends and the wall of noise they would create in basement cellars and in live performance. This was Destroy All Monsters, one of the most avant-garde 'bands' of all time. Featuring artists Niagra, Jim Shaw, Corey Loren and Mike Kelley, Destroy All Monsters is like nothing else. Ever. Psychedelic meets noise meets high and low brow art in a Midwestern blender. Say goodbye to your retinas." DVD Contents: "Grow Live Monsters (1971-1976)" - The early films of DAM; "Shake A Lizard Tail or Rust Belt Rump" - Montage of late-night TV adverts, techno club dancers, and Z grade monster clips; "Monsters Redux" - Outtakes, concert footage, band memorabilia, and photos; "DAM Invades Seattle" - Performance footage from Seattle, 2000; "Hometown Horrors" - Band photos and production stills. Total running time: approx. 145 minutes "Grow Live Monsters is a selection from short home-made no-budget 8mm, super 8 and 16mm film fantasies made between 1971-1976. Most of the films revolved around a group of friends and the wall of noise they would create in basement cellars and in live performance. This was Destroy All Monsters, one of the most avant-garde 'bands' of all time. Featuring artists Niagra, Jim Shaw, Corey Loren and Mike Kelley, Destroy All Monsters is like nothing else. Ever. Psychedelic meets noise meets high and low brow art in a Midwestern blender. Say goodbye to your retinas." DVD Contents: "Grow Live Monsters (1971-1976)" - The early films of DAM; "Shake A Lizard Tail or Rust Belt Rump" - Montage of late-night TV adverts, techno club dancers, and Z grade monster clips; "Monsters Redux" - Outtakes, concert footage, band memorabilia, and photos; "DAM Invades Seattle" - Performance footage from Seattle, 2000; "Hometown Horrors" - Band photos and production stills.
Available at KaraGarga.
at 3:26 PM
Alan Zweig - Lovable (2007)
Thursday, July 24, 2008
At some point, everyone has asked the question, why is it so hard to find love? In this final installment of the autobiographical trilogy that includes Vinyl and I, Curmudgeon, Alan Zweig reflects with disarming candour on why, if he longs for a partner and children, he is still single at mid-life.
Through intimate, heartfelt and often hilarious interviews with a series of diverse, smart and attractive single women, Zweig explores yearnings for the romantic myths of our culture and the difficulty of finding and sustaining relationships.
Some women have come to accept and prefer being alone, but many still dream of a future they can share. Rather than remaining the objective observer, Zweig approaches his female subjects as kindred spirits, sharing their vulnerability and openness. A perfect mixed tape of love songs provides the backdrop for this courageously candid look at love and longing. - Hot Docs
The last in the introspective trilogy that includes Vinyl and I, Curmudgeon. Available at KaraGarga.
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Alan Zweig - I, Curmudgeon (2004)
In this often very funny enquiry into crankiness, Toronto filmmaker Alan Zweig interviews notable curmudgeons like Fran Lebowitz, Harvey Pekar and Bruce LaBruce. Zweig wants to know what their frickin' problem is and, more importantly, whether it's the same as his. As in Vinyl, his equally irascible doc on record collectors, the endearingly dour filmmaker spends much of I, Curmudgeon spilling his guts directly to his camera and torturing himself with big questions that he can never answer satisfactorily. Zweig then confronts his subjects with the same questions, thereby making them even grouchier. (How grouchy? Andy Rooney is moved to kick Zweig out of his office.) Though I, Curmudgeon's meandering structure and incessant jump-cuts are irritants, they're also appropriate to the movie's abrasive, anti-social personality. Consider this a testament to the power of negative thinking. - Eye Weekly
Available at KaraGarga.
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Alan Zweig - Vinyl (2000)
This is a study of the joy and the madness of collecting things, in this case records. However, im pretty sure that regarless of what media you collect, you will recognize yourself in the individuals portrayed in here.
Nice vhs-rip, not as blurry as the screenshots below indicate.
Available at KaraGarga.
at 3:39 PM
John Cage - Variations V (1965)
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Already uploaded Variations VII, so here's the earlier, legendary work that premiered at New York's Philharmonic Hall (!) in 1965. This recording was from a german performance taped for television broadcast the next year. I'm listing John Cage as the director, since he's the mastermind here, but if you know Cage, you understand what a misnomer this is. "Collaborative" doesn't get the half of it: you've got Stan VanDerBeek's films, Nam June Paik's video, David Tudor, Gordon Mumma and John Cage on various tape machines rigged up by Robert Moog and Billy Kluver, Merce Cunningham and company doing movement, actual video here is somebody named Arne Arnbom, but don't know if editing was supervised by VanDerBeek, may have been. The video quality is poor, I've tried to preserve what little there was by not compressing too much - sound is great though. Full 50 min, including a 5 min opening commentary in german without subtitles. German speakers on KG - come lend a hand! - mediaburn(user on KaraGarga)
John Cage made «Variations V» in 1965 for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. He and David Tudor settled on two systems for the sound to be affected by movement. For the first, Billy Klüver and his colleagues set up a system of directional photocells aimed at the stage lights, so that the dancers triggered sounds as they cut the light beams with their movements. A second system used a series of antennas. When a dancer came within four feet of an antenna a sound would result. Ten photocells were wired to activate tape-recorders and short-wave radios. Cecil Coker designed a control circuit, which was built by my assistant Witt Wittnebert. Film footage by Stan VanDerBeek and Nam June Paik's manipulated television images were projected on screens behind the dancers.
The score was created by flipping coins to determine each element and consisted of thirty-five «remarks» outlining the structure, components, and methodology. The specific sound score would change at each performance as it was created by radio antennas responding to the dancers' movements.
The photocells were located at the base of the five-foot antennas placed around the stage. Cage, Tudor, and Gordon Mumma operate equipment to modify and determine the final sounds.
Available at Karagarga.
Ps. check out sbmp3b if you want to check out a lot of Mark Leckey music projects.
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