Anastasya Koshkin – Reliving and All Falling

Reliving and All Falling (2012, 206 MB, 4:42 min)

Lyric moving image poetry that keeps on giving, in proportion to time
spent with. I particularly admire the carefully structured and evocative
soundtrack – there’s a moment towards the end where a deep rumble starts
to suggest the rhythm of the waves we have been watching but never quite
completely coheres and this specific ambiguity typifies the richness of
the use of sound in general.
Visually, the angled image makes us more carefully examine and really see,
drink in, the casual beauties – in delicious high contrast B&W – placed before us.
Lovely.

Anastasya Koshkin on Vimeo

Nicki Rolls – Dream Home & Don’t Know Y


Dream Home (2012, 61MB, 1:00 min)


Don’t Know Y (2010, 116MB, 2:23 min)

I first encountered Nikki Rolls’ work through Kerry Baldry’s splendid One Minutes series.( In fact we featured another piece by her in our very first post about that series)

As with so many of the artists included in that series she’s an amply justified curatorial choice;
her work is subtle, thought provoking and very beautiful.
She makes tiny ( or sometimes none, except to select) interventions into found (sometimes “found from herself”) images or footage which have a transformative effect and an expressive force much greater than one might have any right to predict. Beautiful.

Constellation – Covent Garden Winter Lights

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Constellation (2008, 17MB, 3 min.)

“Commissioned by Covent Garden, United Visual Artists lit up the market
halls of Covent Garden with a responsive light installation. Launched as
the flagship piece of the winter season program at Covent Garden the
installation featured 600 custom-designed mirrored LED tubes hanging
above the entire Covent Garden market space.


The volumetric arrangement of the tubes created a canvas in which three
dimensional light formations were made possible. Constellation was also
individually controllable using a custom-designed control panel, giving the
installation an intimate connection with the public.”

United Visual Artists are a British-based collective whose current practice spans permanent architectural installation, live performance and responsive installation.

Dan Osborne – Behold the Light (at Night)

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Behold the Light (at Night) (2008, 87MB, 6:27 min)

We initially posted this in 2008 when we encountered Dan Osborne’s work
for the first time.
Recently he seems to be actively rejecting some of his earlier work so I hope
he doesn’t mind us reposting this. In my view he’s a very talented artist
with a quite singular vision.
We said then:

There’s something pleasantly reminiscent of Linklater’s Slacker
in this piece from Dan Osborne.
I don’t mean to suggest it’s derivative; I don’t think it is, or only
in the completely unescapable way of coming-after. This piece
has it’s own identity, which at first I wasn’t sure whether it was
completely random, but then little bits of structuring begin to
assert themselves. In particular I like the fades which occur
immediately prior to anything substantive happening.
A lot of it looks very good too – there’s no doubt the man
has an eye – the 3-D glasses sequence, the fire women,
the musical instruments procession (although am I alone in
finding something slighty snotty about the shot of the bemused onlookers?).
That little cavil aside this is interesting stuff & I look forward to seeing
how Osborne’s work develops.

Tony Arnold – Foundation

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Foundation(2011, 153MB, 14:01 min)

Here’s a striking and very beautiful piece of work from
Mississippi based artist Tony Arnold.
There is clear evidence of his discovery and love affair
with the greats of the American experimental film tradition but
he’s obviously gifted and visionary and very much his own
person. (I love his choice of music, sounds a bit like Ornette
Coleman but I think it’s not…wonderful, anyway)
This is evidenced by his website* too –
with exhilaratingly edgy and engaging work, full of ideas –
I particularly like his altered fashion ads series.
Interesting, very interesting, to see how this work develops.

*I am uncomfortable, however, with the dangerously
naive & abstentionist defence of hate-speech there – well,
more than uncomfortable:- it’s stupid & wrong headed –
tell the family of the next racist murder victim that the
language that convicted and sentenced them was just a “series of grunts”.
I’m assuming though it comes from young artist hunger &
restlessness & in-your-faceness and nothing worse.

Patrick Power – lights and darkness


Steamlight (2006, 16.2MB, 2:51)


Watauga (2007, 203.1MB, 26:23)

Two extraordinary pieces from Patrick Power.
Its as if the Qatsi trilogy found a way to use a videoblog as a testing ground.
This is much more than a test, though.
Some of the most important work I have seen in a while.
Beautifully touching randomized archives.
Pushing the limits of contemplative observation.
Taking time to visually visit other places.
There is so much beauty in reflections and the synchronicities of our minds.

Sample these two, then go visit the rest of his collection. Patrick makes the world watchable.

Edit: Sadly, Patrick Power passed away in 2007. This post was created to honor this man’s work, and now sadly, we must honor that work as his legacy.

Big Moth

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Big Moth (2011, 9MB, 3:05 min)

“Experimental film and sound collage with a spoken poem
about embodying a moth”

As you do, as you do…
Another piece of strange & haunting loveliness from Simon Mclennan*.

*I completely screwed up posting this last week – I prepared the post &
went on vacation for a few days forgetting to actually upload the only
copy of the movie we had, on my home machine, to the server. Arrgh!
Big apologies to Simon & here it is all working properly now.

Regina Célia Pinto –Andante Grazioso

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Andante Grazioso (2011, 26MB, 3:47 min)

Gosto muito do trabalho de Regina Pinto, simples e elegante
na superfície, ele toca o coração (e acopla a mente) e,
aparentemente, é isso que nos prende.
Esta profundidade lúcida, a embalagem luminosa do diário,
não é conseguida sem trabalho, mas Regina é demasiado
cuidadosa e modesta (no comportamento, não na ambição)
mas, visivelmente, está fazendo algo difícil, e este fato é,
ele próprio, parte de sua arte. Encantador!

Like so much of Regina Célia Pinto’s work, simple and elegant
on the surface, this touches the heart (and engages the mind)
seemingly without effort.
Of course ‘seemingly’ is the catch. This lucid depth, the luminous
encapsulation of the everyday, is not achieved without labour,
but Regina is too careful and modest (in demeanour, not ambition) an
artist to make heavy weather of it, and this fact is itself part of her art.
Lovely!

Ruth Catlow – Landscape

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Landscape (2011, 114MB, 3:12 min)

Ravishing piece of work from my friend and colleague Ruth Catlow
who is also co-director of the indispensible Furtherfield.org

We’ve been talking a lot amongst ourselves and with our students about
continuities across art history and about hybrid techniques which
meld both the ancient and the newest.
Filmed in the New Forest, this piece (apart from its great beauty)
is an exemplar of this approach and pathbreaking in its way.
(More so than much which, dull-eyed, shouts and waves the latest thing
from the rooftops.)
The oldest kind of mark making, delicately but robustly realised,
captured on a tiny portable video camera in a semi-performative
way and then networked…
Beautiful and nourishing both.