Love is a Wave (2010, 17MB, 1:59 min)
Another video for Crystal Stilts by the
difficult-to-discover-any-details-about armyofkids.
As with the first we posted (also, apparently, by aok)
stylish and dashing both.
Edward Picot –Things That Flow
Things That Flow (2011, 175 MB, 4:00 min)
Doing what it says on the can, and doing it elegantly
and with understatement and grace, a new pastoral (although
that’s not quite the word because the urban, or at least the mechanical,
usually intrudes into the idyll in some way) from Edward Picot.
Experiment – Ryan Dunn
Experiment (2006, 28MB, 2:08 min.)
A Ryan Dunn video.
Moma & Seed Media Group..
from del.icio.us:media:video
‘Un Chien Andalou’ – Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí
Un chien andalou (1929, 156MB, 15:40 min.)
This is just the source.
Can you imagine Cocteau, Deren, later Hitchcock & Cronenberg
without this?
Oh..more:- the whole of cinema would have a great gaping bloody gap
in it & what was left would be dull dull dull & Black Francis wouldn’t have been
able to write ‘Debaser’.
It simply prised open the language.
Afterwards, Bunuel went on to make some of the sharpest, most provocative
& disturbing films of the 20th century & Dali went on to
…well… be Dali.
Rick Silva – recap
Recap (trailer) (2006, 7.18MB, 1:12 min)
Says Rick Silva:
‘Recap is a remix of the cult classic graffiti movie
Wild Style (1982) where every piece of graffiti in
the original film has been digitally crossed out and tagged over
with the Recap tag.’
The full piece is available on DVD as an 82 minute video loop.
I find this piece intriguing. I’m pretty friendly to formalism –
it’s amazing what beauty & interest a good algorithm
(in the broadest sense) can deliver.
But here Rick Silva seems to have taken steps to eliminate
…perhaps too strong…rather…to render difficult…
the emergence (partly because the original looks so great,
haven’t seen it, so even the trailer is, for me, quite irritating,
because by definition it covers up [and maybe this
is the point – I think the setting & hence the mode of viewing
probably make a huge difference – I could see this working
brilliantly in a gallery where one takes in some of it & moves
on, digesting, but I think I would rather have extensive dental
work than sit & watch it as movie] what
I long to see.) of casual beauty.
Good though!
I don’t mean to be negative!
Better than bland of course, anytime!
The Head of Raymond K – Bottom Union
The Head of Raymond K (2006, 25.3 MB, 2:50 min.)
“Did any of this happen? Should I quit drinking coffee?
Do I exist? Am I only a construct in the mind of some insane norwegian?
Should I quit my job? Change my head?
These are only a few of the existential questions you might ask yourself
when you venture into the head of Raymond K.“
Part 2 of 5 from Bottom Union
Josh Weinstein – “Cross Examination”
Cross Examination (2005, 11.4MB, 5:40 min)
Made in 2005, this is a really extraordinary piece for lots of reasons:
(1) It’s so carefully made ( & must have taken no little work)
(2) The chutzpah quotient is almost 100%
(3) There is more here than meets the eye
(4) The use of music (in its second appearance very reminiscent
of the school of Rifle/Hartley but spot on nonetheless)
(5) The warmth, genuine warmth; the real insight into people
As you see here Josh Weinstein, Brooklyn based film maker
does a lot of work for corporate clients. Hmmm.
Really, all you can think is, on the basis of this, they get way,
way more & better than they could possibly deserve.
Iban M. Selles – De Noche
I like the boldness of this, constructed by Iban M. Selles entirely
(and deftly) from stills taken on the set of , as I understand it,
a different film on which Iban Selles was working.
The sound, collaged from a number of movie soundtracks, is tremendous.
The piece as a whole has a slightly provisional feel to it -a study rather
than something definitive -but dull it’s not and I look forward to seeing
more work by Selles.
Bill Shackelford – 2 movies
Home Movies (2007, 11.9MB, 1:10 min)
Money at the Situation (2007, 6.5MB, 37 sec)
Assured & capable micro movie making from Bill Shackelford in 2007.
In the case of Home Movies, more: beautiful, poetic
& singular, using only the artefact laden footage around cuts in
his grandfather’s 8mm home movies from the 50s & 60s.
Bravo!
Toby Tatum – The Sealed World
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.
Sigmar Polke
Emily Hubley – Big Brown Eyes
Big Brown Eyes (1981, 4.2MB, 2 min.)
Animator Emily Hubley, known for the iconic animations
in the movie –Hedwig The Angry Inch made this video
for 1980’s pop band The DBs.
By Mica.
Eleanor Suess films Christopher McHugh
Painting 01 (1998-2001, 58MB, 2:51 min)
More from Eleanor Suess, this time an exploration of a painting
by UK artist Christopher McHugh.
She get’s the usual basics of this sort of thing – fidelity to McHugh’s wonderful colour
sense in particular – spot on, but, as I’m beginning to realise with all of Suess’s
work, there’s a good deal more to it than initially meets the eye.
(Which expression strikes a philosophical note when applied to two
predominantly visual practices)
It’s the modesty (in the best sense) of the that work does it.
The work refuses either to ingratiate or ambush.
We could do with more of this.
Interview with Ubermorgen.com at DAM Gallery Berlin
Interview with Ubermorgen (2011, 41 MB, 6:51 min)
In Berlin, DAM Gallery presented two projects by the artist duo Ubermorgen.com.
The show featured a temporary WOPPOW flagship store featuring fashion with bullet
holes as trademarks and the Deephorizon project that presents oil paintings that are
directly linked to the BP oil spill. On the occasion of the opening of the exhibition,
VernissageTV met with ubermorgen.com
Two Short Movies from Nick Fox-Gieg
Disarmed (2002, 15.8 MB, 2:42 min.)
Mother of All Bombs (2003, 9.5 MB, 1:45 min.)
Nick Fox-Gieg is an animator and theatrical designer.
His short films have been shown at the Rotterdam and Ottawa film festivals,
at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and on Canada’s CBC TV.
Robert Ashley/John Sanborn/Kit Fitzgerald
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.
Frank Zappa on ‘Crossfire’
Frank Zappa on Crossfire (1986, 49MB, 21:17 min)
from – del.icio.us
Nam June Paik: Venus / Art Cologne 2009
Nam June Paik: Venus (2009, 62 MB, 5:28 min)
At Art Cologne 2009 Hans Mayer Gallery showed a piece by Nam June Paik,
a painted aluminium infrastructure with a multi painted satellite dish,
24 color TV sets and laser disc player. In this video, Hans Mayer gives us a
short introduction to the work. From VernissageTV.
Eleanor Suess –Arlene
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.
More Unmonumentality
Found Art (West Village) Unmonumental 503 (2011, 48 MB, 35 secs)
Found Art (Chelsea) Unmonumental 504 (2011, 43 MB, 32 secs)
Two more gems from Joy Garnett’s splendid Unmonumental
project on Flickr.
Dum Dum Girls – Jail La La
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
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.
Takuya Hosogane – Vanishing Point
Vanishing Point (2010, 19 MB, 1:39 min)
Extravagant motion graphics video by Takuya Hosogane.
Minivan on Fire! – Lewis LaCook
Minivan on Fire (2007, 12.6MB, 32 sec)
So…I wrote the comment below in 2004 about the poem (below)
by poet-artist-programmer-polymath Lewis LaCook
but it fits the movie making too, I think.
The poem I reproduce here because it’s great &
because I can.
…*such* great work Lewis.
There’s the delirious and gorgeous imagery that has
always been such an attractive component of your work,
but here also (and did I not notice it so much before
or has it been slowly crystallizing?) a rigorous,
almost steely control of the materials.
The sense of storytelling, the incorporation of
dialogue, the confidence to mix the heady stuff with
the almost prosaic…
a complete pleasure…
michael
— Lewis LaCook wrote:
I had this feeling that I was
worth loving, and you let me
have it: a month of solid
silence and invisibility, and you’ve
forgotten me now, I’m sure:
haven’t even taken the movies back.
I feel I might’ve excited you. True,
you said, “You’re mischievous,
undermining, it gets you hot
to be bad,” with the heroin
of your eyes pushing through me,
“I need all your attention.”
Client status: Connected.
In cramped shoes I’m
transparent on milk
ice: sliding over islands, mortar,
crystals lateral with morphine
lapsed into strings,
stillness; my lace.
Cerebral, but rebellious.
The secret to rolling a great joint
is to roll it tight enough to smoke well
but loose enough to let any left-
over stems elude piercing the paper.
I feel it might be exciting
to feel loved. Someone rubs me
until I blossum. Until it
rains on my tongue. This is free.
There are only so many
kinds of sense. One in which
you’re thick, surrendered
to golds and reds, wear glasses
and have supper with your
mother. Meanwhile, outside
our encampment, fat
velvet fires rescue air from
almost total transparency.
I suck up files from a remote
location for work. Wake up
with my eyes already sunk,
jerk off: get high. Client status:
Connected. A tartly-intelligent
girl with her hand on my belly.
She says she likes it too much.
She has all my attention.
Character sets legitimize
where the pre-dawn wind
plies from you in heavy draughts
your childhood, your child, rubber
nipples: reading under a passive
milk of electric, not walls.
They hug cattle before they
shoot them in the brain.
I sleep past waking.
Everyone will be infinitely home soon.
I was dreaming in blush sundaes,
before, though: we are the wasps
that would rather sting themselves
to death, if that means we escape
a natural terminal port: we’re
those literal motherfuckers
who will not hover, but sparkler
and cackle like it’s all that’s
holding us down. I hate the royal
we. Dreaming about licking
the heart of red, the pith of gold,
cleaning you of stalwart
impurities. Ever feel
like you’re just marking a beat
in a line. Smoke orally
inflates the room. Filtration
flirts with purity the way eightball
chicks glom to money;
it makes them feel loved. Even
common houseplants know
where the sun is, swoon and go
limp when she’s gone. I’m still
waiting for that Saturday you promised me
not thinking about me at all not thinking about
you at all not thinking about you at all.
The Internet – Aaron Valdez
The Internet (2006, 5.3MB, 1:03 min.)
2006 report from Valdezatron Industries technology department.
from Aaron Valdez.
Well Did You Evah!?
Well Did You Evah? (1990, 14.2MB, 3:45 min)
Staying with Monday’s Iggy Pop theme, maybe you’re all
totally familiar with this but I never saw
it before & I think it is great .
Here he duets with Debbie Harry on the
Cole Porter song Well Did You Evah? as part of an
AIDS fundraiser from 1990.
Man Man – Banana Ghost
Banana Ghost (2006, 24MB, 3:15 min.)
Music – Man Man. directed by Jeremy Mayhew.
Bit Max Ernst-ish, eh?
'That's Peanut Butter!'- Iggy & the Stooges, Cincinnati, 1970.
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.
Jordan McKenzie – Serra Frottage
Serra Frottage (2009, 13 MB, 3:17 min)
Whenever I’m travelling through, or near to London’s Liverpool Street station
I try and make time to pass by the wonderful Richard Serra sculpture,
Fulcrum, at the Broadgate end.
I really love it, one of the most successful pieces of public art I’ve
ever seen.
I mentioned this to a friend and he sent me a link to this piece,
one of a series of ‘minimal interventions’ by Jordan McKenzie
who clearly also um – –loves– – Serra’s work.
Puzzleweasel – ‘Cvon’
puzzle (2006, 19.2MB, 3:51 min)
Puzzleweasel is the sonic output of Peter Dahlgren.