March 23
8:00 p.m.
The Menil Collection (outdoors)
1533 Sul Ross
Houston, Texas 77006

Hosted by: Aurora Picture Show

Inspired by the Menil Collection‘s retrospective of the drawings of Richard Serra, which is currently on display until June 10, Aurora Picture Show curator Mary Magsamen will screen a series of short films that focus on gestures and lines created through animation, documentary and/or computer graphics.

This is an outdoor screening, so please bring your own blankets, lawn chairs and, if you like, a picnic dinner.

The Richard Serra exhibit inside the Menil is the first retrospective of the sculptor’s drawings, some of which have directly inspired his sculpture work while some remain completely independent of his other art. The show is organized chronologically and includes new large-scale works that were produced specifically for this exhibit.

The films and videos that will be shown, which range from work by accomplished filmmakers like Robert Todd and Paul McCarthy to new filmmakers such as University of Houston student Thais Verissimo, all “explore the gesture of the line and mark making.”

Todd’s Meer documents lines forming and criss-crossing on a body of water; while in Painting Face Down, McCarthy turns himself into a human paintbrush. In Verissimo’s Keep It Together, a hand feverishly tries to maintain the consistency of a vanishing red line.

The full lineup of short films screening is below:

12 Sketches, dir. Magali Charrier
Tra La La, dir. Magali Charrier
Four Parallel Lines, dir. Mary Ellen Strom and Ann Carlson
Body Tracks, dir. Ana Mendieta
Painting Face Down, dir. Paul McCarthy
Sets, dir. Cheryl Donegan
Brooklyn Bridge, dir. Joan Jonas
Meer, dir. Robert Todd
Keep It Together, dir. Thais Verissimo
Matchstick, dir. Jeff Scher
Train of Thought, dir. Leo Bridle
1:1, dir. Richard Reeves