Brendan Fowler

projections and performance.
part of L.A.N.D.
10 pm - 12 am









Los Angeles Nomadic Divison

10:30pm: Video selections by Brendan Fowler
11:30pm: Performance by Stephen/Steven (Brendan Fowler)

Address: M Bar
1263 W. Temple St., Los Angeles, CA 90026 Parking: Street
RSVP not required.



"A programming series with an eye toward film, video, and the moving image in general, Frame Rate is presented in conjunction with simultaneous LAND exhibitions, at other site, as a means to further explore the work of the exhibiting artists, the exhibition's thematic, and how the two relate."










-----------------

dream machine

this
weekend's
viewing..

Flicker, the documentary.

In 1960, poet, artist, and beatnik Brion Gysin invented the Dreammachine, a hypnotic light device with the power to induce hallucinations. The Dreammachine enthralled mystics and freethinkers everywhere, with William Burroughs claiming that it could, “storm the citadels of enlightenment.”

Nik Sheehan’s riveting documentary explores the life of Brion Gysin and his quest to transform human consciousness. With interviews from some of the counter-culture’s most eccentric icons- from Iggy Pop to singer Marianne Faithfull- FLicKeR is a fascinating exploration of the age-old search for the boundaries of reality.

----

Brent Green : Re(building)

tonite:
Gravity Was
Everywhere
Back Then
at Andrew Edlin Gallery

April 17, 2010 - June 5, 2010

the house that continues to be built time and time again,
over and over, and over. a way to remember, a way to forget...



"Today I join Brent in New York to try and help rebuild Leonard Woods house and try to convince him to stop sleeping on the gallery floor. It is pretty funny to think that Leonard built his house by hand, then it was torn down, then we rebuilt a version, and now we will be rebuilding that version over and over again. It is a strange methodical memorial I guess, like the original house, but in our case we are building to save not a person but a story (but I guess they are the same thing nowadays really...). Now that I think of it, Brent even built a life size version of Leonard's house out of paper before the one in the yard in order to film a small short that was expanded into Gravity. So many times has this house been rebuilt! The paper house set still lives in the barn! Here is a picture of the very first paper version of Brent's version of Leonard's house! "





taken from the
"gravity was everywhere back then"
blog here..

Brent Green
at Andrew Edlin Gallery,
here..

"The exhibition and film both center around the true story of Leonard Wood, an unknown hardware-store clerk from Louisville, Kentucky, who worked tirelessly throughout the 1970s to create an original, bizarre (and since destroyed) residence.

Wood hoped that his unimaginably tiered floors, vaulted ceilings, and twisted, heaving walls might somehow save his wife, Mary, from her terminal cancer. Following her death, Wood tuned his healing machine for another twenty years, before toppling from its roof, leaving him broke and incapacitated.

For Gravity, Green rebuilt Wood's home—along with four other houses, a handmade piano, a sixteen-foot glowing moon, and a giant, wooden God—on his rural Pennsylvania farm, following the crudely rendered plans Wood had scrawled on a piece of cardboard. For the exhibition, Green will install the full-scale house and its contents in the main gallery space, alongside a series of video projections and sculptures. Green describes his own journey creating Gravity Was Everywhere Back Then as, "an effort to leave something wonderful behind, which is exactly what Leonard did."

taken from press release from Andrew Edlin Gallery.....

















thanks
jane!
(sorry i'll miss the opening!)





also for those in new york,
Friday, May 7, 7 pm: film premiere of
Gravity Was Everywhere Back Then,
IFC Center, 323 Sixth Avenue, New York.


-----



----

O F F T H E G R I D

American Dreaming

"Where I live
is the last remaining
land of America that is left"

Off The Grid, Life on the Mesa

a documentary by Jeremy Stulbery and Randy Stulberg,
(now streaming on roku)
stayed up late watching this mindblowing documentary!

"Jeremy and Randy Stulberg, a brother and sister team, originally set out to make a documentary about U.S. citizens living abroad. Then they discovered a tribe of expatriates here at home, fleeing the American mainstream in a way that only deepened their American identity. The Stulbergs filmed them instead, with riveting results.

In 15 square miles of abandoned land, about 400 misfits—aging hippies, disillusioned veterans, teenage runaways—have built a community where no one cares if you smoke pot, fire your rifle all day, let your kids drive your car, or walk around naked in the desert heat. It's a landscape of beat-up old trailers, shacks jerry-rigged from recycled materials, solar panels, little farms, greenhouses, and at least one tipi.

"Where I live is the last remaining land of America that is left," says Dreadie Jeff, another Mesa resident. "You can do what you fucking want there."

read the whole article here
via reason magazine.

------

the
potential
to
see
things
differently.

"At its heart, Between the Folds is a film about potential. The potential of an uncut paper square. The potential of a wild scientific idea. The potential to see things differently."

GREEN FUSE FILMS' award–winning documentary Between the Folds chronicles the stories of ten fine artists and intrepid theoretical scientists who have abandoned careers and scoffed at hard–earned graduate degrees—all to forge unconventional lives as modern–day paperfolders. As they converge on the unlikely medium of origami, these artists and scientists reinterpret the world in paper, and bring forth a bold mix of sensibilities towards art, expressiveness, creativity and meaning. And, together these offbeat and provocative minds demonstrate the innumerable ways that art and science come to bear as we struggle to understand and honor the world around us—as artists, scientists, creators, collaborators, preservers, and simply curious beings.








go here for more info.
buy it here.


















Jean-Claude Correia

.


Dr Erik Demaine (US)

Giang Dinh (US, Vietnam)

Vincent Floderer & Le Crimp (France)

Miri Golan (Israel)

Dr Tom Hull (US)

Paul Jackson (Israel)

Eric Joisel (France)

Michael LaFosse & Richard Alexander (US)

Dr Robert J Lang (US)

Chris K Palmer (US)

Brian Chan (US)

Joel Cooper (US)

Eric Gjerde (US)

Satoshi Kamiya (Japan)

Dr Bernie Peyton (US)


OTHERS CREDITED IN THE FILM:
Jean-Claude Correia (France)
Tomoko Fuse (Japan)
Miyuki Kawamura (Japan)
Akira Yoshizawa (Japan)

Agnes Varda.
rainy day viewing.

Cle0 5 to 7,
1962
Directed by Agnes Varda


"Cléo is a pop singer who wanders around Paris while she awaits her biopsy results in fear she may have cancer. As Cléo readies herself to meet with her doctor at 7 o'clock, she meets with several friends and strangers while trying to grapple with mortality. Sensing indifference from those nearest to her, she finds herself questioning the doll-like image people have of her and is overcome by a feeling of solitude and helplessness. She finally finds some comfort in the company of stranger she meets in a park (Parc Montsouris) and with whom she is able to have a sincere conversation. He accompanies her to the hospital (Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital), where she meets the doctor who will give her the results of the exam."







.

Art 21
lazy sunday in bed
with coffee and art....

(now streaming, here,
on netlifx and roku.)

Art 21 here...
go here for more info.

Art 21was founded in 1997 with the belief that contemporary visual art is of real interest and value to a broad audience. By making contemporary art more accessible through public television and the Internet, Art 21 affords an intimate encounter with contemporary art and the people who make it, encouraging creative thinking and self-expression.

the day i didn't turn with the world...
GUIDO van der WERVE
2007

GUIDO van der WERVE, at Marc Foxx now.
(introduced to a new artist yesterday,
spent the afternoon watching some films.)
thanks r.....




Interesting interview at Metropolis here about his work, and the beginnings,
with Laurence Lowe.

How did you get involved with visual art?

Guido van der Werve:

‘When I was 5 and people asked me what I wanted to be, I always said an inventor. Later on, when I was 16, I got all these parts and I made my own moped. Just that boyish stuff. So I decided to study industrial design at the technical university in Utrecht. But the problem was it’s a university known for rocket science and physics. I mean, I was always pretty good at mathematics, but this was a little too much for my taste. So I quit after two months and decided to do the preparatory year of the conservatory in Rotterdam for jazz and blues. My playing skills were okay, but there was all sorts of other stuff you need to know, like how to sing scales. I really lost interest and most of the year I was just hanging out in pubs with my friends, and by the end I had no idea what I should do. I always had this obsession with Alexander the Great, so I decided to study classical archaeology in Amsterdam, and I immediately began to feel at home there. In fact, I kind of divide my life in two parts: when I was living in the shithole where I’m from, and when I moved to Amsterdam. Anyway, I did that for a year, but archaeology just wasn’t for me. Then I started to think about the industrial design again – I thought maybe I should do that in art school instead, because there’s less math and you don’t have to work in groups, which was something I really hated. If I want to make something work, I should be the dictator, you know what I mean? [we both laugh] I got all these assignments to build up some portfolio. I was always painting and drawing a little bit, but nothing really remarkable. I mean, I really stink as a drawer, I can’t draw anything.’

Laurence Lowe:

Is that the reason you decided to choose film as your medium?

Guido van der Werve:

‘When I was 15 or 16, I went to a theatre school on the weekends. I had a lot of fun doing that. And when I was playing in a band, even when I was playing piano, it was always nice to perform. I liked the action of me doing something, but I didn’t like to do it live in front of an audience. So I asked my friends to make a simple video registration of it. That’s where those works come from.’

.

untitle.
the movie.

(anyone seen it?

comments?)

untitled. the movie.

From the creators of Bartleby comes a fresh new satire poking fun of the nuanced world of the New York contemporary art scene through a pair of competitive brothers – eclectic and self-important... "From the creators of Bartleby comes a fresh new satire poking fun of the nuanced world of the New York contemporary art scene through a pair of competitive brothers – eclectic and self-important music composer Adrian (Adam Goldberg) and commercially successful painter Josh (Eion Bailey)"



read ny times review here,
by stephen holden

double
fright
fest
last
nite.
(roku)

the house of the devil, 2009
in theatres in la, ny, and on demand on amazon or roku.

"Sam (Donahue) is a pretty college sophomore, so desperate to earn some cash for a deposit on an apartment that she accepts a babysitting job even after she finds out there is no baby. Mr. and Mrs. Ulman (cult actors Noonan and Woronov) are the older couple who lure Sam out to their creeky Victorian mansion deep in the woods, just in time for a total lunar eclipse. Megan (Gerwig) is Sam's best friend, who gives her a ride out to the house, and reluctantly leaves her there despite suspecting that something is amiss. Victor (Bowen) at first seems like just a creepy guy lurking around the house, but quickly makes it clear that Sam will end this night in a bloodyfight for her life...."

pin, a plastic nightmare, 1988
watch trailer here.



"A doctor has a lifelike, anatomically-correct medical dummy, with muscles and organs visible through its clear skin, named Pin (after Pinocchio). Via ventriloquism, Pin explains bodily functions in a way kids can relate to. When the over-strict doctor and his wife are killed in a car crash, his son (Leon) transfers his alter-ego into Pin, whom he always believed was alive. He starts using Pin as an excuse to over-protect his sister (Ursula) from admirers and deflect unwanted intrusions, even to the extent of committing murder..."

things
are
never
what
they
seem.




any recommendations to add to my list?

a favorite blog,
a continuous lean...
(read here.)
presents this short on

Gadi Galan.
B4 It Was Cool
in the bowery.

Gadi Gilan Presented by ACL x Cole, Rood & Haan Co. from Michael Williams on Vimeo.

watch more ACL films here.

some
kind
of
wonderful....

(nan goldin)

"What have I done today
Just sat and watched the jets fly over
A car goes by
And the sun goes down
We talk about the town

This city's mad in the head
And sick in the soul
All the stars flew away a long time ago
Isn't that nice"

-Flesh for Lulu, "I Go Crazy"
listen here...

(robert adams)

John Hughes, dead at 59.... here

His films and music choices inspired me. A light at at the end of the tunnel. Some Kind of Wonderful, a personal favorite. Living life on the wrong side of the tracks.

""I just used what I was listening to at the time, bands I liked," Hughes said in a rare 1999 interview. "It was my own personal taste."

Watch clips and songs here...

Thank you John....

the unrelenting sea, the darkness, and a need to search the depths.
an album and film that search the corners of the earth.
truly inspring......

Boxhead Ensemble. The Last Place to Go.
(amazing album....)
listen here..

Boxhead Ensemble, an impromptu project of the Chicago rock avantgarde, involved members of Tortoise, Gastr Del Sol, Eleventh Dream Day plus Jim O'Rourke and Ken Vandermark, all assembled by composer Michael Krassner to score the soundtrack for a film.

The resulting album, Dutch Harbor (Atavistic, 1997), was a collection of austere, erudite, low-key and bleak instrumental improvisations. They were more than vignettes of village life: they were miniature concertos of stunning sophistication.
The Introduction was high-caliber noir and chamber jazz set in an extremely sparse and desolate soundscape of agonizing notes and frustrated melodies. The eight-minute The Ravens, consisting in four guitars dueting with Vandermark's reeds at a funereal pace, moved that concept into abstract space. The ten-minute Ship Supply was structured in three parts: Vendermark's agonizing trumpet melody, a lengthy low haunting drone, and a melancholy tide of O'Rourke's and Krassner's guitars. (Michael Krassner writes: "The low drone you're hearing is Jim O'Rourke playing an acoustic guitar through a guitar amp. He was basically controlling the feedback an acoustic guitar generally makes when positioned close to an amplifier. He was also detuning his guitar during the drone creating interesting beating pulses in the feedback. When one note is sustained and another note or string is slightly being de-tuned, you can hear the overtones pulsating or beating against eachother").













Werner Herzog, "Encounters at the End of the World"

"It’s a burning curiosity in me. A desire to find images which have not been worn out yet. These images require a specific grammar of narration. "Encounters" is narrated in a way unlike any of my other films, since they have a more coherent story, but here it’s just amazement and wonder, plus the incredible warmth I feel for those extraordinary people down there."

"It’s best not to verbalise these things, but I know I’m very good at music. The music in "Encounters" is the best possible combination. And the music makes certain things visible and palpable in the images. You can’t really speak about it. Just look and listen, and you know it. I know how to do these things. It’s my profession."

here....

Sunday, July 19, 7:30

"Beautiful, erotic, phantasmagoric, the films of Kenneth Anger are a national treasure. Mick Jagger, Jimmy Page, Marianne Faithfull, Anton Lavey, and a parade of other 60s luminaries collaborate on this collection of short films . They range from rich mystcal imagery and visual essays of psychedelic color to insider documentary footage of bikers and a glittering love letter to early black and white film. Please join us under the stars for this very special screening with one of our most legendary filmmakers."

Hollywood Forever Cemetery
directed by kenneth anger (1965-1979)
Kenneth Anger in person. (sometimes i feel so lucky to live in L.A.)

“I turned the house into a studio and invited over a bunch of sailors, who were actually students I'd met at USC. They were studying cinema to become technical cameramen. They weren't real sailors picked up off the street, but they were very happy to play these roles in my film.”
-Kenneth Anger

The first thing to note about Anger's films is that they are designed to be seen over and over again. They are typically cyclic in structure: their endings return to their beginnings, inviting replays. By accident or design, this trait echoes both the picture-palace tradition of continuous performances and the notion of magic rituals that have to be performed again and again, rather like keeping a battery charged.

Most of the films begin with the act of waking, opening the eyes, and then follow the protagonist through a quest of some kind... the clear implication is that they'll go through it again the next day. Anger's characters are certainly goal-oriented, but they don't follow learning curves: they're fated to repeat their successes and failures indefinitely."

taken from here..

(russell crotty)

"Moon"
directed by Duncan Jones, starring Sam Rockwell

A story about a man, coming to terms with isolation, his self, his other, and survival.

“You take regular, believable human beings and then you put them in these alien environments,” he said. “And by doing that, you actually make a human being in that environment even more visible. You know, you really see what it is that makes them tick.”

"Jones said the best films “focus on what it is to be a human being, and about fundamental human questions,” and suggested that the sci-fi genre gives directors the perfect vehicle for pursuing such terrain."

taken from the article here... on wired.co.uk

(Incredible film in so many ways. Run!)









































four images inspired by moon...
1. unknown.
2. todd eberle
3. wyeth home lamps
4. hanging lamp by panton

Arthur Russell
May 21, 1951 – April 4, 1992

"Wild Combination, A Portrait of Arthur Russell"
read about it here...

(excited! just added this to my netlix today, thanks to genevieve. thanks! and i just realized, it's been here all along....)

"Ritual in Transfigured" Time by Maya Deren 1946.... read here..

music - Gutted by Burial ...

"A silent, textural, and hypnotic composition in movement and expression, the opening sequence of Ritual in Transfigured Time posits the innate duality of human nature as an animated, approachable female figure (Maya Deren) alternately framed in high contrast against a pair of interchangeable doorways, beckons a seemingly naïve young dancer (Rita Christiani) into a large adjoining room to assist in an implied Sisyphean domestic ritual before being summoned by a striking, cosmopolitan figure (Anaïs Nin) awaiting in an opposite doorway. Transported into the entrance of a lively cocktail party, the timid young woman, now symbolically dressed in mourning attire (that is further intimated by the bearing of lilies, perhaps a representation of her estrangement from her past existence), gracefully navigates through a polyphonic crowd in an exquisitely intricate choreography that reflects the complex trajectory and random movement of bodies in closed space - attraction, collision, deflection, and finally, repulsion - as she encounters a persistent suitor (Frank Westbrook) among the guests and, evoking a visual inverse of a mythical Pygmalion and Galatea, the dashing suitor relentlessly pursues the innocent maiden through a series of exterior spaces that culminates in a transcendent flight through turbulent, engulfing waves."

Brilliant English animators The Brothers Quay create their first feature-length live-action film in this tale of a dilapidated boarding school for the teaching of servants run by a brother and...


Institute Benjamenta (1995)

This Dream People Call Human Life
read more here about the Brothers Quay

(I've forgotten how much I love this film. Incredible in every way.)

Brilliant English animators The Brothers Quay create their first feature-length live-action film in this tale of a dilapidated boarding school for the teaching of servants run by a brother and sister in which the curriculum is the repetition of one single lesson. When Jacob, a young man, enrolls in the school, he becomes entangled in the strange lives of the students and headmasters alike. Called by director Terry Gilliam, "The most visually beautiful and hauntingly humorous film I have seen in the last 300 years."

(Remembering last nite's event. Throbbing Gristle performed, with Derek Jarman's film, In the Shadow of the Sun.)

Stunning, comforting, disorienting, a cocoon of warm and violent noise rattled the old theatre as Derek's images faded out, filling the room with reds, and blacks, and heart. Beautiful and genius.....

tonite!

throbbing gristle live performing the score for, "in the shadow of the sun" a film by derek jarman. i can't wait.