Category Archives: experimental

Eija-Liisa Ahtila – Consolation Service

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consolation_service
Consolation Service (1999, 10 MB, 1:43 min.)

“Consolation Service” follows a young Finnish couple, Anni and J-P, as they
make public their decision to divorce. It is set in early spring in Helsinki, with
its frozen landscape on the cusp of thawing.
Consolation service (awarded at the Venice Biennial in 1999) Ahtila also
deconstructs the formation of the narrative and cinematic illusion: as though
in a straight documentary film (Cinéma vérité), both narrator and camera are
shown openly. The illusion of fiction is thus shattered, made visible. The use of
a hand-held shaking camera reminds the group Dogma 95 led by Lars Von Triers.

By Eija-Liisa Ahtila.

More from Shannon Noble

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Shanno (2010, 11MB, 36 secs)

Nice contrast to Newt – more worked.
The man has range.

Martha Deed – War and Peace

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War and Peace
War and Peace (2006, 35.4MB, 2:34 min.)

Some delicate & tough poetry of the everyday &
the often overlooked (& thence of all we are & of
our place in the natural world too) from Martha Deed in 2006.

Morrisa Maltz – Previous Process

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previous process
Previous Process (2010, 15MB, 1:25 min)

New work from Morrisa Maltz, both revisiting and developing
themes, images and ideas from previous work.
Maltz’s work is growing & unfolding at a slightly scary pace.
The piece too, a little bit scary; or, better, unheimlich.
Interesting to compare it even with the last piece of hers we posted here,
bare weeks ago.
I want to say Maltz has a natural feel for image, cut, sound
but I suspect it is actually worked for and worked for hard.
Good. No falling back, then, on glib facility but lots
more change, development and fascinating work to come.

Shannon Noble – Newt

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newt
Newt (2010?, 47MB, 1:48 min)

We haven’t had anything from Shannon Noble for a long time.
He’s quite elusive. His blog springs up, then disappears, then appears
again under a different name. Currently most of his stuff just seems to
be sitting, unlinked, in a folder on his site.
His work is always interesting (in the strong sense that one can
always learn from it) and hardly ever showy. Maybe his lack of need to show off
or jump up and down saying look at me, even when he’d be justified in so doing
is tied in with his apparent reluctance to promote his work.
Don’t get me wrong -I approve of the former -it makes the viewer do some work and there
are rewards to be had here for doing that work.
Here’s the first of two pieces, a bit like Robert Croma’s piece earlier this week,
not at all in mood or content but simply in being by someone who clearly knows
exactly what they are doing.
The use of sound is both deeply eccentric and wonderful.
More next week.

Suzon Fuks – RINGS from #1 to #6

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rings1to6
RINGS from #1 to #6 (2009, 24 MB, 6:35 min.)

An ongoing series (now numbering six) of one-minute unedited shots which
can each stands alone. Improvised choreography multi-reprojected on body parts,
with James Cunningham, Helen Varley Jamieson, Scotia Monkivitch and Suzon Fuks.
Text by Fernand Shirren.

By Suzon Fuks.

Robert Croma – La Descente

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La Descente (2010, 96MB, 8:21 min)

It’s always great to have a new piece from Robert Croma –
recently this has been an all too rare event.
Great to report that his first in a year is as good as it is.
I know that the people-going-down-steps/up-or-down-escalators/though-doors movies
have come to constitute almost a micro-genre, but this is an exceptionally
meticulous and rich example.
In particular what makes it for me is the decision (wherever – camera, edit – in the workflow
it happened) to leave in the faces who gaze boldly back at the camera.

A lot of Croma’s work employs subtly deployed but thorough post-production
to heighten and poeticize further his material. Here it’s rather his visual acuity
and the years of experience accumulated both in still and moving image which leads
to this simple but devastating handling of his original footage.
Similarly his use of sound is unobtrusive but exceedingly well judged.

I hope it’s not a year to the next one.

Rick Silva – Krummholz Formation

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krummholz formation
Krummholz Formation (2010, 112MB, 16:48 min)

It’s always a pleasure to post new work from Rick Silva here
and this piece is no exception.
His work has been heading somewhere strange, gripping
and utterly his own for some time now.
I find this loyalty to a very personal vision both admirable
and exemplary. I’m fascinated to see whether further development
along this path is possible or whether there will at some point be a sharp
change of direction.
(Once again with this piece I really want to see it
in a gallery -nobody is more adept or at home at work for the net than Silva
but I can’t help feeling that this work needs space and distance…)

The Possible Ties Between Illness and Success – Carlo Zanni

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The Possible Ties (2006-07, 119 MB, 2:15 min.)

”

Jasper Elings – From Xerox to Xerox

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From Xerox to Xerox (2010, 20MB, 8 secs)

Copy of a copy using 133 different Xerox machines…
No idea whether it’s meant to be ravishing but it is.
Ravishing. Delicate, blink-and-you-miss-it & ravishing.
From Jasper Elings.