Steven Hoskins – 15 Years

15years
15 Years (2011, 60 MB, 3:08 min)

Reverse aging transformation of a 15 year self-portrait sequence
of Dan Hanna, forming the basis for the movie “StartStop” (2009).
Edited in HD. Used is 32 channel split screen asynchrony to create the illusion of flow.
By Steven Hoskins.

Ruth Catlow – Landscape

love_is_a_wave.jpg
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.

William Wegman & Steve Martin

William Wegman & Steve Martin
Martin on Wegman (1999, 3.75MB, 2:09 min.)

The introduction to the identity program from the PBS series
Art in the 21st Century in which host Steve Martin is featured
in this charming and quirky video by the artist William Wegman.

Alan Sondheim – Two Movies

after the fall
After the Fall (2011, 44 MB, 1:01 min)

antenna
Antenna (2011, 65 MB, 57 secs)

Two very different and very beautiful movies from Alan Sondheim.

Toby Tatum – The Sealed World

TobyTatumTheSealedWorld.jpg
The Sealed World (2009, 217MB, 5:59 min)

Very nicely executed short film from UK film-maker Toby Tatum,
who is clearly both gifted and imaginative.
It brings to mind an attempt to conjure in a distilled way the atmosphere of
pieces like Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s Innocence.
(and nothing wrong with this; I’m using Innocence as a point of comparison
rather than asserting influence)
I’m not sure it entirely succeeds – the act of distillation, of reduction to
suggestion, to atmosphere (ironically the very richness of the prize-winning music by Abi Fry
contributes to this) means it ends up feeling laid on a tad thickly.
Nonetheless it’s work that demands & deserves attention and I’ll be interested to see where
Tatum heads next.

Robert Ashley/John Sanborn/Kit Fitzgerald

excerpt from Word Music Fire
excerpt from ‘Word Music Fire’ (1981, 8.7MB, 7:45 min)

Found at newmusicbox ,which also has lots of interesting interview footage
with the composer. Despite the low quality of this clip, it suffices to indicate
what a thrilling piece of work this (originally made for TV by Channel 13/WNET)
must be in its entirety.
I’ve been a bit of an Ashley agnostic until now, but this has really whetted my appetite
for more.
Partly it’s that, music aside, the vid by John Sanborn in collaboration with
Kit Fitzgerald
is so great.

Eleanor Suess –Arlene

Arlene-EleanorSuess.mov
Arlene (1994, 19MB, 54 secs)

Beautiful and delicate, yet somehow tough, bit of
performative portraiture from 1994 by Eleanor Suess.
I really like the fact her work doesn’t scream look-
at-me-how-clever-I-am
but when one does look
carefully, there is art enough to engage,
reward and move.

Dum Dum Girls – Jail La La

jail_la_la.mov
Jail La La (2010, 65MB, 4:36 min)

Another music video, this time from
the Dum Dum Girls.
Great song, great film too, from Christin Turner.
Both make me dizzy inside & grin stupidly
on the outside.

More from Doodlebug

foodieterror.mov
Food Terror (2008, 73MB, 4:36 min)

More from Manchester’s Doodlebug.
This one is particularly splendid and
meal times will never be the same again.
Here’s the text Michael Barnes-Wynters sent me but
I don’t really know what it means:

Doodlebug Presents…25/10/08 at Contact feat.
Ronald fraser-munro’s RFM-UNPLUCKED. manc. poet
amanda milligan’s ‘mz.milly does…’ debut outting
with ‘On Becoming a Human Being’ (AV mix).
a sneak preview of Urbis’s Black Panther artist
Emory Douglas expo. French guerilla photgrapher
JR’s ‘Women are Heroes’ plus Terrorist’s FOOD TERROR mix.

I think we’re watching that last item.
Anyway, it’s great.
More soon.

'That's Peanut Butter!'- Iggy & the Stooges, Cincinnati, 1970.

Iggy the Stooges
Iggy, Cincinnati, 1970 (1970, 28.7MB, 5:05 min.)

Layer upon layer of skin-tingling wonder & bizarreness
(is that a word?) from Iggy & the Stooges in 1970,
long before he discovered car insurance.
It doesn’t get any better than this.

From the excellent WFMU’s Beware of the Blog.