Monthly Archives: December 2011

Merry

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a christmas medley from barnsley town centre
A Christmas Medley From Barnsley Town Centre (2011, 87MB, 1:29 min)

Normally we don’t post our own work here but I couldn’t resist this.
Also – it was a gift; no editing, just the take. (OK. I turned down the brightness
& jacked up the contrast a little.)
Barnsley is actually the friendliest of places, with a grumpy, wry, cheerfulness born of
generations of working-class solidarity, especially in the pits, though it’s now
ravaged by the cuts and closures of the past years.
From me & Doron, Happy Holidays and looking forward to a better world next year.
We’re taking a small holiday break & we’ll be back with something rather splendid
from Morrisa Maltz on January 2nd.

Betty Martins – When the Souls Arrive

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when the souls arrive

I recently attended a fairly high profile art video festival,
which shall be nameless, and I came away feeling depressed.
There was some good work (indeed, some magnificent, not much, but some) but
on the whole it was just a dispiriting display of meretricious effects, sloppy thinking
and a striving for the quick impression; all pretty souless & forgettable stuff.
(Oh, and plus a lot of cliched tosh about the – yawn – “post-human”. Wasn’t post human,
most of it, so much as post-being-any-good)
Then, on the other hand, you come across something like this:
no in-your-faceness, modest, austere and subtle, makes you do a little bit of work,
but so, so worth spending time with.
is the Brazilian video maker who made this small and perfect gem
– an account of the celebration of the Day of the Dead by expat Mexicans
living in London.
You can see the whole thing here (and I urge you to do so).
Betty Martins cheered me up considerably and I look forward to much more
work of this quality from her.

Cohen, Tarantino, Goffman

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Dance Me
Dance Me To The End Of Love (clip, 1994, 0.5MB, 31 sec.)

Dance Me1
Dance Me To The End Of Love (1995, 34.1MB, 6:07 min.)

Leonard Cohen’s work has always walked a fine line
between kitsch & poetry.
Don’t get me wrong – the kitsch is like a dash of chilli,
gives the whole thing added piquancy & depth.
Check out these two videos for ‘Dance Me To The End Of Love’.
The first, the short clip, is the official video.
Now look at the second.
OK- first things first -just who is that playing the bridegroom?
Then, consider if this whole unofficial one ( by Aaron Goffman)
prolix & kitschy in some respects as it undoubtedly is,
doesn’t somehow do more justice to Cohen’s world !’

Jennifer Steinkamp – Mike Kelley

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steinkamp_kelley
Mike Kelley (2007, 7.3 MB, 15 sec.)

‘Mike Kelley’ are high definition video projections of individual trees
with branches moving in a twirling pattern. Projected to fill the height
of the gallery’s walls, the images interact with the architecture of the gallery,
creating tension between the imaginary landscape and the physical space.

by Jennifer Steinkamp.

Sondheim – Prisoners

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Prisoners
prisoners (2008, 25.4MB, 2:36 min)

Nearest thing to a Picasso we yet have, in my view.
Whatever history decides, there’s no denying one point
of Sondheim/Picasso commonality – an almost compulsive
productivity.
I’d push it further -they both constantly transform lead into
gold. Picasso & his seat & handlebars, Sondheim, for example,
these bits of video.
The music, a kind of hallucinogenic, shredded-up
slow funk/blues, is also particularly noteworthy.
Here, for good measure, is Alan’s accompanying rubric:

prisoners of motion capture, prisoners of west virginia

prisoners of caloric, froid, prisoners of gravitation
prisoners of art, mayhem, vandal, prisoners of desecration

o to be a prisoner of life again (above the clouds
o to be a prisoner of love again (within the waters
o to be a prisoner of truth again (beyond the earths
o to be a prisoner of dance again (before the fires

prisoners of fires, froid, prisoners of aerostat and transport
transport of prisoners, clouds, waters, earths, fluids

yes, prisoners of fluids, prisoners of fluids and places
prisoners of west virginia, of fluids, places, life, love,
truth and dance again

Toby Tatum on ‘The Golden Age’

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the golden age
Toby Tatum on ‘The Golden Age’ (2011, 78MB, 4:38 min)

Toby Tatum, talking about his film The Golden Age, which we posted here
a couple of weeks back.
I’m always hungry for artists talking about process. Learn! Steal!

Yu-Chen Wang – Struggle for Existence

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struggle_existence
Struggle for Existence (2004, 18MB, 1:58 min.)

“By linking Darwin’s “The truth of universal struggle for existence” with a Taiwanese children’s game, The video represents two individuals’ slaughter in the virtual battle field and reflects on the ideology of boundary dividing, self-defending patriotism and bellicosity.”
by – Yu-Chen Wang.

Philippe Decouflé – Le P’tit Bal

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le p'tit bal
Le P’tit Bal (1994, 14MB, 3:48 min)

Total joy.

Video: Philippe Decouflé
Song: Le P’tit Bal Perdu byAndré Bourvil

Gilbert & George -The Singing Sculpture

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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

Ruth Catlow – overland

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overland
overland (2010, 131MB, 2:58 min)

And sadly, the last in our little season of movies by Ruth Catlow. This is another
train movie, no conceptual underpinnings to speak of this time, just a beautiful,
bleached out pastels, lo-fi ( mobile?) account of the Serbian section of a journey by train to Istanbul
last year when she was refusing ‘to fly for art’, something more people should do more often if
the results here are anything to go by.
More from Ruth, of course, as she produces it…

Scritti Politti – pop sublimity

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Word Girl
The Word Girl (1985, 7.62MB, 3:14 min)

Oh Patti
Oh Patti (1988, 20.3MB, 4:14 min)

Two of the most perfect pop songs ever made, the first from
1985’s Cupid & Psyche & the second from 1988’s Provision
(& which features a trumpet solo from Miles Davis of staggering
economy & otherworldly beauty).
Pet Sounds excepted, pop music just doesn’t come better.
The vids aren’t just an adjunct – of course they have historical
interest (that weird decade!), but there’s something fragile
& haunting & mysterious there which survives the occasional impossible
to overlook moment of naffness.
Wonderful.

Sigur Ròs : Heima Trailer

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Heima Trailer
heima trailer (2007, 46.7 MB, 3:53 min.)

An exquisite trailer for the promising first film from Iceland’s Sigur Ròs.
Watch, and then tell me you did not add Iceland to your top 5 places
to see before you die.

Back By Popular Demand – The Lesbian Rangers

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Lesbian_Rangers1
The Lesbian Rangers (2005, 18 MB, 1:41 min.)

welcome
Welcome to Reorientation 2005 (2005, 34.8 MB, 2:17 min.)

rock
Victory at The Rock (2005, 72.4 MB, 4:45 min.)

Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan are Winnipeg-based collaborators whose
internationally acclaimed work addresses feminist, lesbian, and social concerns
with tremendous wit. “The Lesbian Rangers” were founded in 1997, to help people
learn about fascinating and fragile lesbian ecosystem. Rangers Dempsey and Millan
led the first expedition to Banff National Park, and continue to offer lesbian leadership today.
(thanks jillian)

Annie Pui Ling Lok

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EP
EP (2008, 45MB, 2:29 min)

Anyone who has been lucky enough to see dancer & artist Annie Pui Ling Lok
do the former will know what a fruitful combination of fierce, almost austere,
intellect & yet sensitivity to the particular, the fragile & the human, to expect.
There’s such a sure hand at work here – the confidence in collaging
disparate material brings Marker to mind & although we’ve tagged it
‘experimental’, in one sense the piece is anything but -it’s so not
a technical exercise, but a rounded, resonant work of art.

1905 at 2 a.m. in the subway

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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.

Eric Lerner – Mr. Deja Vu

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Eric Lerner – Mr. Deja Vu (2006, 27.2MB, 3:48)

From Eric Lerner‘s collection of Mr.CityMen.

Freud was a Fraud – Charlene Rule

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freud was a fraud
freudwasafraud (2006, 6.1MB, 2:32 min)

‘There’s nothing like spending a little quality time with the
latest top ten questions about your potential state of mind.’
podcast from Charlene Rule aka scratch video.