Author Archives: michael

Ash Sechler – 2 movies

Posted on by


Transformation (2009, 15.5MB, 1:18 min)


Representation of Memory (2006, 75.4MB, 2:22 min)

Clearly there is something in the water in Athens, Georgia giving us,
as it has, John Michael Boling & Javier Morales, John Crowe,
Dan Osborne, Brantley Jones and now Ash Sechler.
Hmm – The School of Athens, Georgia.
There’s no common style but there is a certain sensibility which,
curiously, pervades the quiet meditative stuff as well as the more
out-there and bizarre – it’s a species of wryness combined with an
eye for the casually arresting, odd and beautiful.
It’s exemplified here in both these rather good pieces, though I particularly
like Representation of Memory.

Sam Renseiw – Blind Voodles

Posted on by


Blind Voodle #1 (2009, 57.4MB, 6:25 min)


Blind Voodle #2 (2009, 31.6MB, 3:35 min)

Oneiric gorgeousness from the magnificent Sam Renseiw.

Talan Memmott – land/wave

Posted on by


land/wave:02.08 (2009, 39MB, 1:10 min)


land/wave:03.02 (2009, 42MB, 1:17 min)

These pieces stand in stark and interesting contrast to the
magic realist whimsy of Memmott’s collabs with Sandy Florian
which we showed here a few months back.
I’d be interested to know whether these new works are completely,
as it were, synthesised or whether, lurking at the back,
there’s some real world footage.
The first piece puts me in mind quite forcibly of a journey by train
(as if the abstract shapes and images had been piled upon some
manipulated footage thereof..)
Dunno.
Good though! –striking. Talan?

Dan Osborne – Mariah Carey/Boyz II Men

Posted on by


Mariah Carey/Boyz II Men(2009, 86MB, 4:49min)

Splendid bit of drôlerie from Dan Osborne, whose work
we’ve featured here before and certainly will again.
It’s funny, sure, but as with a good deal of Osborne’s work it
treads an interesting line between funny bone and heartstring.
Oh..alright..maybe heartstring is a bit strong but there’s a
certain, and a rather touching, melancholy lurking here.

Also – what is it about Mariah Carey and art video on the net?

Door by Lewis LaCook

Posted on by

door_LaCook
Door (2006, 3.6MB, 1:00 min)

From Lewis LaCook.
Like his poetry – fragile, complex & perfectly judged
( or – better – judged according to careful & complex
personal criteria, of which we kind of get a glimpse,
an intuition).
Lingers in the mind long afterwards.

Sondheim

Posted on by

cat
laminanimal (2006, 8.3MB, 1:18 min)

Strange.
Strange & beautiful.
Strange & beautiful & nightmarish & funny & exhilarating.
From Alan Sondheim.

Juanjo Fern

Posted on by

Sine Nights
Sine Nights (2004, 3.1MB, 1:08 min)

Deconstruccion Natural
Deconstruccion Natural #1 (2003, 7.9MB, 1:39 min)

Two nicely contrasting bits of work, both evidencing
a well developed visual sensibility from Barcleona based
artist & VJ Juanjo Fern

Red Shoe Delivery Service

Posted on by

Red Shoe Delivery Service
Red Shoe Delivery Service (2006, 18.6.5MB, 3:10 min)

Red Shoe Delivery Service is a group of artists who take
up residence in various cities & go around in a vehicle
offering people rides & um.. while people are in the vehicle
they get to look at art & uh

Henry Gwiazda is a Star

Posted on by


claudia and paul 4:55 pm (2008, 34.6MB, 1:00 min)


there’s whispering (2008, 21.6MB, 3:45 min)

Rather lovely work from Henry Gwiazda.
Claudia and Paul , in particular, is a shivers down the spine affair for me.
I’d been vaguely aware of Gwiazda before but never really explored his work
– I will definitely be looking carefully in future.

Millie Niss – Commercial Spots

Posted on by

commercial_spot
Commercial Spots (2006, 8.4MB)

Archive sutff from the Sporkworld stable, this time from Millie Niss & it has
all the hallmarks that make Sporkworld work such an unalloyed pleasure.
Manifestly bullshit free, apparently straightforward but with onion like layers,
this one wonderfully highlights Niss

Gabriel Shalom – Beardbox

Posted on by


Beardbox (2009, 24.8MB, 2:44 min)

We’ve featured work by Gabriel Shalom here before.
Deft, witty and involving it was then & so it is here too.
Shalom is also public spirited and has just started up this
interesting looking blog for ‘Both theoretical & practical dialogue
about the future of the cinema’.
This combination of some serious thinking with high level technical chops
promises more of interest in the future -we’ll be watching.
For the moment, more here.

DVblog will eat itself

Posted on by

mouth_study
mouth study (2005, 7.8MB, 3:40 min)

Using footage from the ‘cutting edge cinema‘ thing
we posted here before Lewis LaCook,
created an utterly exuberant & assured piece of appropriation
video with 186,000 ideas per second.

A Series of Practical Performances In The Wilderness (3)

Posted on by

moose_and_atv
moose and atv (2005, 2MB, 46 sec.)

springwater_finale
springwater finale (2005, 6.5MB, 2:27 min.)

Final two pieces, chapters 7 & 8, from

Spike Jonze –Weapon of Choice

Posted on by


Weapon of Choice (2001, 37.1MB, 3:52 min)

Great Spike Jonze directed video for Fat Boy Slim’s
Weapon of Choice, featuring Christopher Walken.

ICP Orchestra Play Monk

Posted on by

Criss Cross
Criss Cross (2003, 95MB, 7:42 min.)

The extraordinary ICP orchestra put Monk’s Criss Cross
through its paces.
All good, but just wait for the Misha Mengelberg piano solo.
Piano players everywhere: weep. Everyone else just relish.
Bliss.

stapelia ophelia

Posted on by

stapelia
Stapelia Ophelia (2005, 2.7MB, 1:23 min.)

‘The corpse flower’ in the window is getting louder, I can hardly
think. There is no running away from the smell, the sound is
deafening if you listen closely. The flowers keep coming back, I
cannot stop them. There is wind & rain as well, now, as I am seeing
the clip much later, the elements without which the day would be void.

DVblog’s Doron & Michael at HTTP Gallery, London

Posted on by


West of the Great Altar of Zeus (Doron, 2009, 27MB, 1:51 min)

About


9 Third Avenue Haiku (Michael, 2008, 52.7MB, 4:32 min)

About

We normally avoid posting our own work but this
time we’re going to make an exception.
Doron & I have a joint show at HTTP gallery & we’d like to
invite any DVblog readers in the area to come
along to the private view, this Friday, 16th January.
(Details on the HTTP site linked above)
I’ve posted a piece by each of us (which should
give you a feel for whether you’d love or hate us) but the HTTP
show is going to be a little different from our usual work
so please come along, have a drink, take a look & say hello…

Helmut Oehring – BlauWaldDorf

Posted on by


Blau Wald Dorf ( Blue Wood Village) (excerpt) (2001, 1.7MB, 53 secs)

The music of Helmut Oehring is like nothing you’ve ever heard.
A hearing child of deaf mute parents, he incorporates his early
experiences into the music he writes, which frequently features
sign language ( not in a token but a completely necessary and
integrated manner).
The actual sound world of the music, moreover, is suffused with a character that
must surely have been formed by those same early experiences -stringed instruments
are tuned down to points of almost unplayable slackness & there is a fragmentary and
distanced, almost walled-off, quality to it all.
If you’re intrigued by the clip it’s well worth checking out recordings of his stuff.

Kate Maki – We are Gone

Posted on by


We Are Gone (2008, 55.8MB, 2:50 min)

I was drawn to this because of its connection with the
sublime Howe Gelb ( he produced & plays on the album & it’s on
his OW-OM label), but it’s winning beyond that very good intial reason.
Ms Maki’s song & performance are quite lovely in their passionate restraint
& the video, directed by Scott Cudmore & shot by Lee Towndrow on,
I gather, though I’ve lost the link to the page that told me so, the ‘video’
setting of a stills cam, matches the song in passion, restraint & loveliness.
Cudmore and Towndrow pass, with flying colours, a very simple test
-anyone who can’t produce something affecting with the most minimal
of technical resources probably shouldn’t be making movies at all…

Gerben Kruk – 2 Movies

Posted on by


Vogels (2003, 3.5MB, 1:01 min)


Overdrive(2003, 4.5MB, 1:12 min)

Two 2003 pieces from Dutch artist Gerben Kruk.
I like the way the quite in-your-face soundtrack in both cases
sets the tone for & structures our response to the visuals.
There’s a curious contradiction between the bucolic content of Vogels
and the sheer noisiness and velocity of it.
(AND NB THOSE SENSITIVE TO FLICKER SHOULD PROBABLY NOT
ATTEMPT TO WATCH IT) .

Doomtree – Drumsticks

Posted on by


Drumsticks (2008, 32.1MB, 2:43 min)

I know no more about Doomtree than you can glean, gentle viewer, from their site
& their my space but this video simply fills me with joy.
First off, nothing with massed bicycles in it can be all bad but, over & above,
it’s something to do with the combination of skillz & almost palpable & somehow
innocent sincerity that just makes a beeline for my heart. Lovely.

Monochrom – Killing Capitalism with Christmas

Posted on by


Kiki and Bubu and the Feelings (2008, 48.9MB, 4:48 min)

More splendid agit-puppetry from monochrom.

Dizzee Rascal’s Dream

Posted on by


Dream (2004, 11.9MB, 3:43 min)

2004 video from Dizzee Rascal
& director Dougal Wilson.
Utterly exhilarating.

Flatness:145

Posted on by

flatness145
Flatness:145 (2006, 11.5MB, 2:25 min.)

Deftly made & somehow rather British quirkiness
from artist Rob James.

‘Play One of Those Funky Dope Scratches!’

Posted on by

freezebassrock
Freeze Bass Rock (date unknown, 0.9MB, 47 sec)

goingon
Going On (date unknown, 1.1MB, 58 sec)

Lamentably poorly filmed, but nonetheless delicious bits of
scratching from delarge.co.uk, which I think is a Brighton,
UK based visual arts &c. collective, though I could be wrong –
these guys are cool & don

Two from Monkmus & Kid Koala

Posted on by

basinstblues
Basin Street Blues (2003, 11.3 MB)

fenderbender
Fender Bender (2000, 3.9 MB)

Couple of collaborations between artist & film-maker
Monkmus and turntablist Kid Koala found on the
generously-stocked-with-goodies video page of the
Ninja Tune site, these tracks are pure aural & visual delight.

New York Times Special Edition – The War Is Over

Posted on by


New York Times Special Edition (2008, 16.2MB, 2:12 min)

Self-explanatory movie giving background & reaction
to the day before yesterday’s visionary prank ( &
how often do you hear those two words together?)
by those visionary pranksters The Yes Men.
More here.
Breathtaking & inspiring.

Voting

Posted on by

voting
Voting (2008, 37.2MB, 13:37)

I know we featured the folks at Sporkworld only recently
but they just posted this and it’s wonderful
– & somewhat topical…
Watch it all – it’s deadly serious but Millie Niss
makes her points with the kind of comic timing
many would kill for.

Xologola – Michael Robinson

Posted on by


Xologola (2007, 49.3MB, 1:18 min)

DeK, from no fat clips!!!, recommends this piece by Michael Robinson
with sound by Bish.
It’s undeniably skilfully made & pretty though I can’t help wishing
more happened.
There’s a moment, about 1:06, where we seem to be gearing up
for some visible variation in tempo & geometry but the moment
passes & the piece ends.
Nonetheless one can’t help but admire the process:
… made up of scans and pictures of branches,
broken and scratched glass, and digitally painted textures…

Recent work from Paul Kelly

Posted on by


The Video Artist (2004-8, 15.5MB, 1:19 min)


Corporate Flag (2008, 47.2MB, 4:06 min)


Narrative (2008, 19.9MB, 1:35 min)

We’ve featured a number of pieces by Paul Kelly
in the last year, although in terms of their date of
making they stretch over some 4 years.
Looking back it seems to me there’s a very striking
sense of development.
The language and technique here is leaner, tougher
& more focussed, though without any loss of the
delight in the beauty & mystery of the everyday
that is a keynote of all the work.
As a little aside I know Paul has been making stuff
for Brittany (of this manor) & Andreas’s
Lumi