Curt Cloninger – Pop Mantra #4 (Rain Down On Me)

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Rain Down On Me: 10:00 am (2012, 22MB, 1:27 min)

rain down - 3:43pm
Rain Down On Me: 3:43pm (2012, 20MB, 1:01 min)

rain down - 6:00pm
Rain Down On Me: 6:00pm (2012, 110MB, 6:32 min)

Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center, 14 September 2012, 10am – 6pm:
Curt Cloninger repeatedly performs a short excerpt from the
Radiohead song “Paranoid Android” for eight hours blindfolded.
The performance is the fourth in an ongoing series.
Video documentation by Alice Sebrell

Full documentation

Bob Ross is alive. The Joy of Painting..

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Bob Ross is alive (2008, 22MB, 2:50 min.)

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The Joy of Painting (2008, 15MB, 5:45 min.)

Bob Ross came to prominence as the creator of ‘The Joy of Painting’,
a program on public television in the US. Here are a couple of great parodies
that poke fun at Bob and his calm and enduring nature.
Top is from Dutch filmmaker Miron Bilski (from the viral video award)
Bottom is from artists Max Kotelchuck and Peter Nowogrodzki.

Tony Arnold – New Work

Robert Loggia Trailer
Talkin’ Singularity Blues (2012, 186MB, 8:13 min)

Talkin
Robert Loggia [trailer] (2012, 43MB, 1:39 min)

We’ve shown work -very individual and promising work –
from Tony Arnold before and we’re delighted to do so again.
There’s an energy and freshness to his work and a kind
of volcanic flow of creativity which is invigorating.
The first of these pieces is accompanied by music from
Arnold himself, which I like very much. The second is a trailer
for a full length piece which you can view in its entirety here.

‘Miniatures’ by Steven Hoskins

miniatures
Miniatures (2006, 11MB, 2:35 min.)

‘Early experimental work in multi-frame/multi-track asynchrony.’

More works from video artist Steven Hoskins on Video Art Net.

Constant Dullaart – Hurricane

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hurricane3 (2008, 1.7MB, 47 sec.)

From Dutch artist Constant Dullaart.

A Map Comes to Life


Andersen M Studio – A Map Comes to Life (2006, 11.4MB, 2:20)

Incredible stop-motion animation from London’s
Andersen M Studio. Much of their video work is
in the same style, but why switch it up when
they’re so talented in this specialized way?
Inspiring and fun.

An Object At Rest, Must Stay At Rest – Michael Guidetti

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An Object At Rest, Must Stay At Rest (2007, 3MB, 30 sec. loop)

Video projection (loop) & ink on paper
by artist Michael Guidetti.

Morrisa Maltz – Character 3/3 – Iris

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Character 3/3 – Iris (2012, 67MB, 1:20 min)

Last one of three and all a pleasure to post and to view.
Here’s to lots more work from Morrisa.

self.detach – decomposing identities

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self.detach (2008, 13MB, 2:24 min.)

self.detach is a dynamic Object, which adopts a critical position
towards the celebration of the ego on the internet by dissolving
self-portraying pictures into coloured particles.’

A project by Tim Horntrich and Jens Wunderling.

Robb Bradely/Randy Newman – I’m Dreaming of a White President

 I
I’m Dreaming of a White President (2012, 15MB, 3:16 min)

Great bit of film-making to match a genius song.
But…but…
Of course you want Obama to win just
to wrongfoot the racists et. al. but you
can’t help wishing he’d actually done something
to merit the mad hostility of the rich, the bigots
and the terminally gullible.

Andy Warhol Eats A Hamburger


Jørgen Leth – 66 Scenes from America (1981, 9.9MB, 4:16)

Pretty self-explanatory: Andy eats a burger.
Scene from controversial Danish filmmaker
Jørgen Leth’s 1981 composite film, 66 Scenes from America.

Morrisa Maltz – Character 2/3 – Inverted Rose

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Character 2/3 – Inverted Rose (2012, 43MB, 55 secs)

2nd in the series of 3, the first of which we posted last week.
I think these are lovely and haunting and I’m impressed by Morrisa
Maltz’s diligence and imagination.
(I love what she does with sound, too)
Is it just me or do these slightly conjure Isadora Duncan for anyone else?
Last one on Friday.

Richard Haley – Extending a Rain Puddle’s Reach By 16 Inches

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Puddle Extension (2007, 5MB, 6:42 min.)

Masonite, masking tape, and plastic sheeting device
designed to extend a rain puddle’s reach by 16 inches.
By Richard Haley.

In the realm of ‘A Series of Practical Performances In The Wilderness’
by Cary Peppermint and Christine Nadir. (1) (2)

Morrisa Maltz – Character 1/3 (Infinite Loop)

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Character 1/3 [Infinite Loop] (2012, 130MB, 1:07 min)

I love Morrisa Maltz’s work. I particularly relish the way
she doesn’t rest on her laurels but pushes herself ever on to new
and (over-used word in the arts but, I think, apposite here)
fearless ways of thinking about and making things.
This is the first of three pieces best described, literally,
as moving pictures.
Tremendous!

Imitations of Life – Mike Hoolboom

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Imitations of Life (excerpt) (2003, 35MB, 4 min.)

Imitations of Life is a ten-part video that strains childhood through a history
of reproduction, culling pictures from the Lumières to
the present day in order to find the future in our past.
by experimental filmmaker Mike Hoolboom.

Adam Mufti – Garden Cities of the Future


Adam Mufti – Garden Cities of the Future (2008, 53MB, 7:19)

Remarkable, hypnotic work from the incredibly talented Adam Mufti.
Part meditation on modern life, part perhaps futuristic foreboding,
this piece sort of leaves me speechless, though I fear a lack of
editorializing might portray lukewarm feelings.
It’s really just that I’d rather a viewer experience this on his/her own.
I thought I’d watched a 3 minute piece – only when posting this did
I discover the actual runtime is more than double what it seems.
In this case, that’s exceptional.
The video also features the voice of London actress Juliet Rylance.
The whole thing, the composition, the editing, all of it: truly stunning,
took my breath away. Find a quiet spot and enjoy.

Lucy Mills – Sunday Afternoon Narcissism

sunday afternoon narcissism
Sunday Afternoon Narcissism (2012, 190MB, 2:46 min)

Hypnotic and disorientating chunk of enchantment from London artist
Lucy Mills.
Only one cavil and that’s the title – the self-deprecation involved might
serve to camouflage the actual richness of this piece, at least from the
casual viewer*.

Let’s be optimistic and assume careful viewing, which work of
this quality certainly merits.

* Although, on reflection, the ‘Sunday Afternoon’ also suggests a certain
dreamy languor quite in keeping with just how gently ravishing it all is.

Alan Sondheim – Disappearing Body

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Disappearing Body (2012, 44MB, 1:02min loop)

Time marches on but some things don’t change and one of these is
our unbounded admiration here for the work of Alan Sondheim.
This is a perhaps a lollipop in comparison to some of his work but
it is, as always, rich and beautiful and lodges both in the conscious
mind and in our dreams.

Says Sondheim:

Mark Esper’s Two-Tone Enlightenment work forms the basis
of this short video. The screen presents shadows as positive,
not negative; infrared light forms the projection source
which is read and interpreted by revolving LEDs.

The body disappears. In the video, I imitated the effect
using video echo in an attempt to erase the body almost
entirely. Mark’s piece is brilliant, and the video is a
byproduct; I take advantage of the illumination to create
a somewhat clumsy series of movements.

Thus the mechanical is made virtual, and the virtual made
mechanical; such reversals form the core of theory povera.

The One That Got Away – Marisa Olson

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The One That Got Away (2005, 19MB, 9:02 min.)


In the Fall of 2004,Marisa Olson gained worldwide attention
while training to audition for American Idol

Mad King Thomas/Kevin Obsatz – Eat up, Little Pearl – trailer

eat up little pearl - trailer
Eat up, Little Pearl – trailer (2012, 42MB, 3:26min)

Absolutely wonderful promotional/performance video from US performance/dance
outfit Mad King Thomas (whom I know little about but would love to see),
the vid directed, apparently, by Kevin Obsatz who was behind the
video haikus we posted in July.
Video…&..er…troupe…all great, great.

Jeremy Bailey – Transhuman Dance Recital #1

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Transhuman Dance Recital #1 (2008, 56MB, 6:30 min.)

If Jeff Koons had fallen for the Microsoft Help Paperclip rather than
vacuum cleaners or La Cicciolina, presumably the result would have
looked a lot like: ”The Jeremy Bailey Show”.

Says Jeremy Bailey: “From now on I dedicate myself to finding better
ways for humans to dance”

One Minutes – Volume #6

emily richardson over the horizon extract
Emily Richardson -‘Over the Horizon’ (extract) (2012, 75MB, 1:10min)

We’ll start this season with an suggestion for something you
can physically attend and absolutely should, too, if you’re
anywhere near London this Thursday evening (Sept 27th).

As part of the London Underground Film Sessions
The Horse Hospital are premiering Volume 6 of Kerry Baldry‘s
exemplary ‘One Minutes’ compilations of …er… one-minute-in-length
artist moving image work.
Transparency dictates I reveal I have a piece in it, but any claims
for mine aside, I can confidently predict a wonderfully varied, well
curated, roller coaster of work.

This piece is an extract from a longer work by Emily Richardson
(and, of course, splendid though it is, showing a single piece
immediately traduces one of the principal attractions of the project
which is the heady variety and contrast of it all. Here and here
is some stuff from previous volumes)

Hope to see you there!

2 from Donna Kuhn

mailmanmoronsuperman
mailman, moron, superman (2008, 76.3MB, 3:27 min)

spinning
Spinning (2008, 47.2 MB, 2:00 min)

Two pieces from Donna Kuhn in 2008.
I wrote then:

We’ve shown a number of pieces by Donna Kuhn here previously.
I wondered to myself a couple of times, I must admit, whether the fact of
having developed such an intensely freighted and personal syntax and vocabulary might
not at some point become a block to further development, whether there was a limit to
the elaboration (and not of course simply the formal elaboration but of how much
in the way of new approaches to her subject matter this process could be made to yield) of this
admittedly extraordinarily beautiful and singular set of moves.
Well no sign of it yet – instead there is this remarkable process of intensification,
of continual, ever finer and more nuanced scrutiny, distillation and development.
It’s like watching an never ending succession of rabbits being pulled out of
hats and it’s quite, quite beautiful and moving.
All of it something of a masterclass, but the use of sound especially colors me
green with envy – wonderful!

Michael C. Place – MyStyle correction rollers


MyStyle (2008, 73MB, 3:40 min.)

Michael C. Place promotes “MyStyle” for Pritt in France in 2008.
Michael is founder of BUILD.

Barney Doodlebug at i-Kast 2012

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iKast 2012 (2012, 70MB, 3:23min)

i-kast voodoodoodles
iKast voodoodoodles (2012, 89MB, 2:35min)

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voodoo 1 (2012, 362MB, 9:58min)

Here’s some more gripping work from Michael Barnes-Wynters a.k.a Barney Doodlebug
who previously opened my eyes to a thriving live arts scene in Manchester, UK.
Featured here are two videos of a new piece by Michael which figured in i-Kast,
“a live intervention transmission for www.artplayer.tv with artists roney fraser-munroe,
naomi kashiwagi and michael barnes-wynters” in May of this year.
The first video is an excellent short documentary overview of the event
with interviews with key figures.

Michael is going to be running an event for 15-25 year olds as part of the season
in the new Tate Modern space “The Tanks” on Thursday 23 August.

Video Haiku: Four Frame Dance Project


Video Haiku – Four Frame Dance Project: Megan Mayer (2008, 22.4MB, 3:38)

Second in a series of four frame dance videos from
Video Haiku in 2008.
Lovely, inspiring, and fun.
Next week, some more recent work by Kevin Obsatz, the person behind this.

Stan VanDerBeek – 2 Poem Films

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Astral Man an Illuminated Poem (1959, 22MB, 2:27 min.)

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poem field No2 (1966, 60MB, 5:42 min.)

A true innovator. Creator of countless films displaying complete artistic control.
What vision Stan VanDerBeek, what vision.

Netbehaviour Mailing List Fractal Excerpt

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Netbehaviour Mailing List Fractal [Excerpt] (2012, 5MB, 59 secs)

From Claude Heiland-Allen:
Seven years of archives for this mailing list filtered down
to the most often occurring 1000 words of 4 letters or more,
in an infinite fractal zoom – each word is made up of the
words that most likely follow it.

We love the Netbehaviour list & this, splendid & bonkers both, does just
what it says on the tin with that excellent institution – we’ve posted
the minute long version here but if that whets your appetite for more
there’s an hour long version at archive.org.

Dirty Projectors – Gun Has no Trigger

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Gun has no Trigger (2012, 31MB, 3:26 min)

I need to get out more, or at least talk to more people because the
Dirty Projectors completely passed me by until a couple of weeks ago
when I happened upon this video for a track from their new (and, I
have to say, quite, quite, wonderful and – and I use the word advisedly
because it is so overused in a popular music context – strikingly original)
album.
I’ve no idea know who directed the vid but it’s smart and spare and beautiful
and fits the music like a glove (but a glove that brings more than simply being
a glove to the table – maybe it has striking patterns, or raised areas or a
couple of extra fingers, or it glows in the dark or something.)

Christian Marc Schmidt – 2 Movies

Driving
Driving (2006, 6MB, 4:39 min.)

Loop
Loop (2006, 11.8MB, 7:49 min.)

Two 2006 movies from Christian Marc Schmidt’s adaptive landscapes
sequence of work.
Check out the link above for Schmidt’s background notes on the pieces.
I’ll just observe that they are not alone in recent work featured here
in belonging to a category of work that could be called gorgeous formalism.