Edward Picot – Job’s Comforters


Job’s Comforters (2013, 3MB, 7:00 min)

Those who associate Edward Picot solely with his marvellous Dr Hairy series,
wickedly funny and pointed satire in the kind of lo-fi/hand made tradition
that comes down from Postgate and Firmin might be quite taken
aback by this. You have to watch the whole thing. Until shortly before the
end you seem to be simply watching a poetic & minimal retelling of a bible
story, then the whole thing suddenly lurches several gears into the kind of
territory that one associates more with Tarr and Kasznahorkai at their most
bleak and disturbing (and somehow their most bracing and exhilarating too).
It’s a punch to the solar plexus of a piece and simply magnificent.
I don’t know where its bleakness comes from or takes us but what it does
en route burns into you.

Osvaldo Cibils – 2 Humans, 1 Paper


2 Humans, 1 Paper (2013, 10MB, 3:38 min)

I first stumbled across Osvaldo Cibils and his marvellously eclectic and well..simply marvellous work
on Flickr but he seems to have all sorts of things going.
So simple but so, so telling. Kind of Buster Keaton meets Bruce Nauman meets something hard to pin down but lyrical, grotesque and smart all at once.
My kind of artist.
+++
2 humans 1 paper
video art/soundart.
performance with plotter paper 200 x 107 centimeters.
performers: fiorella alberti architect and osvaldo cibils artist.
place: artist’s studio. Via della Cervara, 55 – 38121 – Trento (TN) Italia
22 march 2013, 20 hours

Almost 7 Minutes of Unalloyed Bliss


What’s Opera Doc? (1957, 57.2MB, 6:52 min)

Remember the tingle down the spine when the first song kicks in in
the musical episode of Buffy?
Well, here’s the template from 1957.
Cartoons featuring talking and singing animals performing opera simply
do not get better than this.

Wishing you all a very happy holiday season…

Sam Easterton – Animal Vegetable Video

ardvark
Ardvark (2001, 1.6MB, 15 sec.)

scorpion
Scorpion (2001, 1.1MB, 10 sec.)

tumble1
Tumbleweeds (2001, 1.2MB, 10 sec.)

wolf
Wolf (2001, 1.1MB, 10 sec.)

Since 1988, Sam Easterton has been using tiny
‘helmet mounted’ cameras to create an archive of videos filmed
from the perspective of plants and animals.

By Mica

Burroughs, Balch & Gysin – The Cut-Ups

 the cut ups
The Cut-Ups (clip) (1966, 15.4MB, 1:20 min.)

William Burroughs & co-conspirators made this in 1966.
1966! – could’ve been the day after tomorrow.

Will Goss – Penmanship

beanstalk
Penmanship (2010, 75 MB,2:59 min)

Genius.
Is that an actor, or frighteningly, is it appropriated documentary
of some normally little viewed, fringe sort?

Will Goss – Failure is an Option

beanstalk
Failure is an Option (2010, 53 MB, 2:03 min)

More rum goings-on from the prodigously talented Will Goss.
Is that the Kalevala?
More on Thursday.

Alan Sondheim – Kelvin Helmholtz Clouds


Kelvin Helmholtz Clouds (2008, 5.6MB, 24 secs)

It’s funny – even when Sondheim does picturesque there’s
something very defiantly personal about his take on it.
Here it’s the way that the sequence of images just occasionally
looks as if it hadn’t been thrown together at random but
most of the time it does.
And this does not matter -in fact it’s an asset -there’s a shamanic
urgency to everything Sondheim does which is wholly engaging.

Huzzah for Brittany Shoot!


Woah (2009, 6.1MB, 41 sec loop)


Bush Shoe (2009, 2.8MB, 27 secs)


Protest (2009, 14.1MB, 26 secs)

It’s the James-Bond-Martini scenario – tinder dry & leaving you
both shaken and stirred.
Three reasons to say “Huzzah for Brittany Shoot!“.

PS nobody in the UK actually says Huzzah, whatever you might have been told.

Will Goss – from Magenta’s Caress

beanstalk
Beanstalk [from Magenta’s Caress #3] (2010, 125 MB, 3:50 min)

This is great. It forcibly calls to mind the early work of the sainted Hal Hartley
and whilst it’s arguable that some of what’s on offer here is like a sort
of condensed supercharged bucket of HH’s stylistic tics I find none of that
irritating in the way I might have expected, rather it’s a definite plus, by some odd
counter-intuitive magic. It’s the very over-the-topness of it all that lends
it its huge charm.
More from Will Goss soon.

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

puddleextension1
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)

character_1_1
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!

Jeremy Bailey – Transhuman Dance Recital #1

transhuman.jpg
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”

Netbehaviour Mailing List Fractal Excerpt

gun_has_no_trigger
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

gun_has_no_trigger
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.)

Dan Osborne – Behold the Light (at Night)

intitled
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.

Pierre Huyghe

Pierre Huyghe #1
Pierre Huyghe #1 (NK, 2.69MB, 1:43 min)

Pierre Huyghe #2
Pierre Huyghe #2 (NK, 1.59MB, 3:03 min)

Pierre Huyghe #3
Pierre Huyghe #3 (NK, 2.33MB, 1:29 min)

Pierre Huyghe #4
Pierre Huyghe #4 (NK, 2.29MB, 1:30 min)

Four short videos by the often vexing, occasionally brilliant, Pierre Huyghe
from the website of the PBS Art in the 21st Century series.

Bonnie Prince Billy/Ben Berman –I See a Darkness

I See a Darkness
I See a Darkness (2012, 32MB, 2:40 min)

Bonnie Prince Billy/Will Oldham has a way of generating interesting things
around his core business of making extraordinary music.
In a similar way to that of Ornette Coleman, his album artwork always
contains many little explosions of visual pleasure and neither is it devoid of
food for thought.
This is also true of the videos he commissions to accompany his music.
We’ve posted some of these before , including a deliciously bizarre
one from Harmony Korine.
This is one of my favourites to date. Made by Ben Berman, it involves
Oldham lolloping around the streets of Glasgow in a way that in real
life would have me crossing the road toot sweet.
I’m an Oldham fan. If I had to put my finger on one of the things
that lifts him so far from the ordinary it would be a confidence in his
work so great (or maybe better, simply an integrity to it and to his art),
that he can encompass within it and place around it things of utter
ridiculousness without undermining it, indeed, whilst rendering it the more potent.
This is not to downplay the role of Berman in this. He is clearly a significant
talent and a fine co-conspirator for Oldham.

Dawid Krępski & Jason Chiu – Fall into Light

Fall into Light
Fall into Light (2012, 209MB, 3:57 min)

For about the first twenty seconds I didn’t think I was going to like
this music video by Dawid Krępski & Jason Chiu, or at least that I
would remain easily indifferent and unmoved.

Then, ..well.. , it’s a slow burn but it gently explodes, if that’s not too
much of an oxymoron, into something fertile and strange that won’t let
go of you.
I don’t think there probably is a narrative but, as you watch, the piece
fools you into believing there is, one straight from a fever dream.
Great.

Credits:
Song: Beca – Fall into Light
Directed: Dawid Krępski & Jason Chiu

Actors: Kelsey Peterson, Fred Geyer
D.O.P: Dawid Krępski & Jason Chiu

Edit: Dawid Krępski
Special thanks: Magdalena Gaca, Michael McKeogh

Psycho Bob – Bob’s Big Date

bob_date.jpg
Bob’s Big Date (2008, 7 MB, 50 sec.)

“These are the adventures of a psychopath named Bob. Bob is not
a nice man; not even a little bit. This show is the video equivalent
of a Sunday comic strip.

Here Bob goes out on a date with Betty, perhaps the first woman
other than his mother to truly understand and appreciate him.”
From The AV Club.

Nathaniel Stern & Scott Kildall – Tweets in Space

Tweets in Space
Tweets in Space (2012, 52MB, 2:27 min)

Scott Kildall and Nathaniel Stern of Wikipedia Art return with another
project both odd, lyrical and utopian.
“Tweets in Space” will beam Twitter discussions from participants worldwide
towards GJ667Cc: a planet 22 light years away that apparently might support
earth-like life.
Anyone can take part, simply by adding #tweetsinspace to their tweets during
two performance times in September, when Stern and Kildall will be doing live
projections at the International Symposium on Electronic Art in New Mexico,
and boldly tweeting where none have tweeted before.

They say:
“This differs from every past alien transmission in that it is not only
a public performance, but also performs a public: it is a real-time
conversation between hopeful peers sending their thoughts to everywhere
and nowhere.
Our soon-to-be alien friends will receive unmediated thoughts and responses
about politics, philosophy, pop culture, dinner, dancing cats and everything
in between.
By engaging the millions of voices in the Twitterverse and dispatching them
into the larger Universe, “Tweets in Space” activates a potent discussion
about communication and life that traverses beyond our borders or understanding.
It promises more than could ever be delivered.”

This is their fundraising video – please consider making a donation to make the
project happen and also publicise and share it on lists, facebook, twitter, etc.

Charlie Mars – Videomaker from Outerspace

deux
deux (2006, 22MB, 3:48 min)

by Charlie Mars.

Joan Healy: Deranged, but in a Good Way


Sithair

Sithair (2007, 6.4MB, 1:49 min)

Cyberskin
Cyber Skin (2007, 38.8MB, 3:05 min)

Meat Market
Meat Market (2007, 39.6MB, 7:14 min)

I was lucky enough to see young Irish artist Joan Healy
present her work at a 2008 DATA event in Dublin.
It was strange.
First off, consciously or not, she has this innocent
butter-wouldn’t-melt-in-my-mouth demeanour and then she
shows this.. er..stuff
Documented here, in ascending order of weirdness, there’s a performance piece
where she transforms her hair into a musical instrument,
a piece where she satirises the current bio-art fashion by
getting into a box, exposing some of her back (the installation
claims this is especially grown cyber-skin)
& then attempting to draw to screen the patterns the punters trace
out on her.
Last is ..well.. (vegans avert your eyes), electronically assisted dancing meat
– you know.. chops.. steaks.. & the like..
After she gave her talk I said to her I thought her work was ‘utterly deranged’
She smiled sweetly and said she would take it as a compliment.
It was.

Amelia Winger-Bearskin – State of Things


Amelia Winger-Bearskin – State of Things (2007, 19.9MB, 8:58)

Amelia Winger-Bearskin makes fun, funky performance pieces
and has a couple on her website worth viewing.
This is my favorite piece from her Chroma Key series.
Try swearing for nine minutes straight and see
how successful you are.

Dan Canyon

Quilts Never Sleep
Quilts Never Sleep (short version) (2007, 20.9MB, 3:07 min)

Me... U
Me… U (2007, 80MB, 12:45 min)

Two very different but attractive & telling pieces from Dan Canyon.
The first was part of a show of – you guessed it – quilts in London in 2006,
about which read more here.
The second could’ve been made for dvblog, well, at least for me, as I’m a fool
for all things turntablist, & features the splendidly monickered Mickey Morphingaz.

Gilbert & George -The Singing Sculpture

Gilbert and George
The Singing Sculpture (1992, 830k, 41 sec.)

“Singing Sculpture documents one of Gilbert & George’s most famous “living sculpture” pieces.
Covered in multicolored bronze paint, the artists sing and interchange parts of the English
music hall standard “Underneath the Arches.” Through their stylized performance,
Gilbert & George deliberately blur the lines between life and art, reality and contrivance.
This ambiguity does not rely on a transformation from living to sculptural form. On the contrary,
they have merged the two in order to obliterate, rather than emphasize, the distinctions between life and art.” – Walker Art Center
from Video Data Bank

1905 at 2 a.m. in the subway

0896
2 a.m. in the subway (1905, 8 MB, 56 sec.)

A subway platform, a policeman and a conductor, a well-dressed man
with a cigar and two women dressed in long skirts and jackets.
One of the women causes a sensation by raising her skirt and
revealing her stocking. Artificial legs are displayed out the subway car window.
Hilarious.
From – The Open Video Project.

Brian Kim Stefans – Difficult Beauty

vex1
Vex #1 (2006, 29.1MB, 2:08 min.)

vex5
Vex #5 (2006, 25.9MB, 1:09 min.)

ferrari dogs
Ferrari Dogs (2006, 25.9MB, 1:09 min.)

You know sometimes how when you first look at a work
you can’t process it immediately, it seems jumbled – wrong
& you’re tempted to dismiss it.
Then you live with it awhile & suddenly it leaps into focus &
you realise you’re in the presence of something much richer
& more rewarding than the things which did immediately fall into place?
Do you know that feeling?
Well, that’s how I felt as I prepared this post.
The work, by the artist & poet Brian Kim Stefans, snuck up
on me & then hit me over the head.
Furthermore, there’s still a puzzling quality to it all, for me:
the Ferrari Dogs piece seems like work of a different category
to the vex pieces somehow ( as does Manchurian Rainman on
the site. Check it. Now – what is that all about?)
Anyway – I’ll take mystery over glibness anyday – I look forward to more.

James Joyce has a Posse

james joyce has a posse
James Joyce has a Posse (2011, 32MB, 4:49 min)

And mentioning Curt Cloninger, as we did on Friday last, it’s nice to report he has made
a new video which is both gorgeous and engimatic, with a musicality which stems
not only from the actual sounds but the video’s very construction, that repeated
wistful, strange, ‘Portrait of the Artist’, title motif…
Cloninger is someone (Eddie Whelan the other who springs to mind) who has thoroughly incorporated
data-moshing as an expressive tool into their vocabulary, defying reports of its early death.
Poetry.

PS And just in passing – I’m fascinated by movies like this one, for which it’s very difficult
to create an adequate poster image.
Data-moshing is a particularly dynamic form of moving image work
where the motion is like the Cheshire Cat’s grin.
It’s not just data-moshing – it happens elsewhere.
It’s like some movies are, in some sense, “further away” in the line of image kinship
with the still.

Errol Morris: Donald Trump on Citizen Kane

trump_kane
Donald Trump on Citizen Kane (2004, 40.2MB, 3:22 min.)

by Errol Morris.
‘The last thing one would imagine Donald Trump talking about is Citizen Kane,
what many believe to the greatest film ever made, but here he is talking about
in one of the aborted projects by Errol Morris — like he has lived it, like he is a
reincarnation of Charles Foster Kane. The beauty is not just in the Errol Morris
meditative style or even what Trump has to say about Citizen Kane but what we
want to see. Mainly, that Trump’s life mirrors that of Kane and that this real life
epic character sees his own tragedy.
Talking about wealth, he says ‘In real life, wealth does in fact isolate you from other
people…it is a protective mechanism’. That quote speaks volumes. The salesman is
poking holes into his much marketed life. Asked on what advice he would give
Charles Foster Kane, Trump says boldly: ‘Get yourself a different woman!’.