Conversations at the Edge

SPRING 2013 SEASON

CONCRETE PARLAY:
An Evening with Fern Silva

Thursday, February 14, 6:00 p.m.

Fern Silva in person

Still from Concrete Parlay (Fern Silva, 2012). Courtesy of the artist

Fern Silva’s invigorating, geographically-sweeping films bring together sounds and images of nature, ritual, and pop culture from Europe, South America, the Middle East and the United States to explore ideas of travel and cross-cultural movement. “The disorienting whirl of the compass,” suggests curator Aily Nash “connotes the kinetic nature of existence.” For this program Silva presents five films made since 2010, including Passage Upon the Plume (2011), In the Absence of Light, Darkness Prevails (2010) and the Chicago premiere of his latest, Concrete Parlay (2012).

Fern Silva (b. 1982, Hartford, CT) was named as one of the “Top 25 avant-garde filmmakers for the 21st century” in Film Comment magazine. His work has been exhibited at numerous festivals, galleries, and museums around the globe. He currently teaches at the University of Illinois-Chicago.

2010-12, multiple countries, multiple formats, ca 60 min + discussion

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FIRE IS A FACT:
An Evening with Karen Yasinsky

Thursday, February 21, 6:00 p.m.

Karen Yasinsky in person

Still from Who's Your True Love (Karen Yasinsky, 2003). Courtesy of the artist.

Telescoping themes of anxiety and desire, Baltimore-based Karen Yasinsky crafts seductive half-narratives through hand-made clay puppets and the painstaking process of hand-drawn rotoscoping. For this program, she presents a survey of animated films from across her career, including the US premiere of her latest, Life is an Opinion, Fire a Fact (2012).

Karen Yasinsky’s (b. 1965, Pittsburgh, PA) animations, installations, and drawings have been exhibited in numerous international venues. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Baker Award, and is a fellow of the American Academy in Berlin and the American Academy in Rome. She teaches at Johns Hopkins University.

1998-2012, USA, multiple formats, ca 75 min + discussion

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ARCHIVES IN PROGRESS:
An Evening with Darko Fritz

Thursday, February 28, 6:00 p.m.

Darko Fritz person

Installation view of 204_NO_CONTENT (Darko Fritz, 2007). Courtesy of the artist

“Darko Fritz is like a one-man tech-art history machine.”– Bruce Sterling

Renowned for his groundbreaking exhibitions of video and computer art, Amsterdam-based curator and researcher Darko Fritz has also produced a body of work around concepts of glitch, error, and surveillance. Fritz presents selections from Archives in Progress, an ongoing project that draws upon his past works to explore the possibility of the archive and “pure information” as mediums for art.

An architect by training, Darko Fritz (b. 1966, Split, Croatia) is a multimedia artist, curator, researcher, and graphic designer. His own artworks are in the collections of Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Skopje City Museum; World Bank, Washington D.C.; and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb; among others. He is currently based in Amsterdam, Korčula, and Zagreb.

Organized with the support of the Mondriaan Fund, Amsterdam.

1987-2012, Croatia/Netherlands/UK, multiple formats, ca 75 min + discussion

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REMIX-IT-RIGHT:
Rediscoveries in the Phil Morton Archive

Thursday, March 7, 8:00 p.m. (special time)

Introduced by curator Jon Cates. Artists in person

Still from Colorful Colorado (Rick Silva, 2011). Courtesy of the artist.

An international roster of contemporary video and new media artists remix and reimagine works by Chicago video pioneer Phil Morton. Morton’s genre-defying work anticipated remix; he also developed COPY-IT-RIGHT, an alternative to copyright that encourages making, sharing, re-editing and distributing media art. Introduced and organized by Jon Cates, founder of the Phil Morton Memorial Archive and Chair of SAIC’s Department of Film, Video, New Media, and Animation, this program interweaves Morton’s originals with their remixes.

Phil Morton (1945-2003) was an electronic visualization artist, analog computer builder, real-time video graphic performance artist, C.B. radio performer, Mobile Video Van designer and user, and videotape maker. His thirty-year “personal video databank” is available through the Phil Morton Memorial Research Archive in SAIC’s Department of Film, Video, New Media, and Animation.

Presented in collaboration with theSociety for Cinema and Media Studies Annual Conference. This program is generously supported by the Richard and Ellen Sandor Family Foundation.

1972-2013, multiple countries, multiple formats, ca 60 min + discussion

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WAVELENGTHS:
in the blink of an eye

Thursday, March 21, 6:00 p.m.

Introduced by curator Andréa Picard

Still from View From the Acropolis (Lonnie van Brummelen & Siebren de Haan, 2012). Courtesy of the artists and Motive Gallery.

A compendium of works featured in the Toronto International Film Festival’s celebrated Wavelengths program. Curated by Andréa Picard, who has headed the avant-garde section since 2006, this screening features the Chicago premieres of Nathaniel Dorsky’s August and After (2012), Ernie Gehr’s Auto-Collider XV (2011) and Lonnie van Brummelen and Siebren de Haan’s View from the Acropolis (2012) as well as a 35mm restored print of Henri Storck’s Surrealist gem, Pour vos beaux yeux (1929). Blinking is not encouraged!

Andréa Picard (b. 1977, Toronto, Canada) is a film curator and writer based in Toronto and Paris.

1929-2012, multiple countries, multiple formats, ca 71 min + discussion

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L.A. REBELLION

Thursday, March 28, 6:00 p.m.

Introduced by co-curator Jacqueline Stewart

Still from Water Ritual #1: An Urban Rite of Purification (Barbara McCullough, 1979).

In the 1970s and 80s, a group of young African and African American filmmakers emerged from UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television with a body of provocative and visionary works that would have a radical impact on black cinematic practice and alternative filmmaking in the U.S. Now referred to as the L.A. Rebellion, these artists took up urgent social and cultural dynamics of their time, including Black activism and militancy, everyday life, and spirituality. Introduced by co-curator Jacqueline Stewart, the program kicks off a multi-institutional series of screenings in Chicago exploring the L.A. Rebellion and features short films by Julie Dash, O.Funmilayo Makarah, Elyseo J. Taylor, including stunning new preservation prints of Ben Caldwell’s I & I: An African Allegory (1979) and Barbara McCullough’s seminal Water Ritual #1: An Urban Rite of Purification (1979).

Presented in association with UCLA Film & Television Archive and supported in part by grants from the Getty Foundation and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the L.A. Rebellion series is curated by Allyson Nadia Field, Jan-Christopher Horak, Shannon Kelley, and Jacqueline Stewart. Upcoming screenings will take place at the University of Chicago’s Film Studies Center and Northwestern University’s Block Cinema.

1973-2006, USA, multiple formats, ca 77 min + discussion

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SPIN/VERSO/CONTOUR:
An Evening with Hannes Schüpbach

Thursday, April 4, 6:00 p.m.

Hannes Schüpbach in person

Still from Spin (Hannes Schüpbach, 2001). Courtesy of the artist

An evening with renowned Swiss artist Hannes Schüpbach whose films are lyrical, often transcendent portraits of people, spaces, and everyday life. A painter, performance artist, and expert on textile art, Schüpbach weaves together light, gesture, and a keen attentiveness to the material world into meticulously structured compositions. For this program, he presents Spin/Verso/Contour (2001-11), an affecting trilogy about his parents, and L’Atelier (2008), a portrait of an artist’s studio in Paris.

Hannes Schüpbach (b. 1965, Winterthur, Switzerland) is a painter, performance artist, filmmaker and curator. His 16mm films have screened worldwide, including the Centre Pompidou, Paris and the Tate Modern, London; among others.

Organized with the support of SWISS FILMS–The Arts Council of Switzerland.

2001-11, France/Switzerland, 16mm, ca 60 min + discussion

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AN EVENING WITH ROSA BARBA

Thursday, April 11, 6:00 p.m.

Rosa Barba in person

Still from Outwardly From the Earth's Center (Rosa Barba, 2007). Courtesy of the artist and the Video Data Bank.

An evening with German-Italian artist Rosa Barba, whose work takes shape through books, sculptural film-based installations, and short films. Often set in monumental landscapes—the “red zone” around Mount Vesuvius, military test sites in the Mojave Desert, an island adrift in the Baltic Sea—her films combine documentary, performance, and science fiction to examine surreal confrontations between nature, humans, and their technologies.

Rosa Barba (b. 1972, Agrigento, Italy) currently lives and works in Berlin. Her work has been exhibited in film festivals, art biennales, art museums, and galleries worldwide. Barba is the recipient of numerous international prizes, including the Nam June Paik Award (2010).

Presented in collaboration with SAIC’s Visiting Artists Program and the Video Data Bank.

2007-11, Italy/Netherlands/Sweden/USA, multiple formats, ca 70 min + discussion

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twohundredfiftysixcolors

Thursday, April 18, 6:00 p.m.

World premiere! Eric Fleischauer & Jason Lazarus in person

Still from twohundredfiftysixcolors (Eric Fleischauer & Jason Lazarus, 2013). Courtesy of the artists

Crafted from thousands of animated GIFs (the file format used to create simple, looping animations online) twohundredfiftysixcolors is an expansive and revealing portrait of what has become a zeitgeist medium. Chicago-based artists Eric Fleischauer and Jason Lazarus chart the GIF’s evolution from internet page signpost into a nimble tool for pop-cultural memes, self-expression, and considered artistic gestures as well as the file type’s connections to early cinema, and its contemporary cultural and aesthetic possibilities.

Jason Lazarus (b. 1975, Kansas City, MO) is a Chicago-based artist, curator, educator, and writer. His practice includes photography, public archive projects, and the exploration of notions of impossibility as a medium. Lazarus’s work has been exhibited internationally and is in major collections including the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Milwaukee Museum of Art, among others.

Eric Fleischauer (b. 1977, Buffalo, NY) is a Chicago–based artist, curator, and educator. Working in video, film, and digital mediums. Fleischauer examines the ramifications of technology’s expansive influence on both the individual and cultural sphere. His work has been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, threewalls, and the Kunstmuseum Bonn, among others.

2013, Eric Fleischauer & Jason Lazarus, digital file, 72 min + discussion

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