May 19
7:00 p.m.
Microscope Gallery
4 Charles Place
Brooklyn, NY 11221

Hosted by: Jesse Malmed

Curator Jesse Malmed has assembled a wonderful lineup of recent experimental videos by Clint Enns, Deborah Stratman, Fern Silva, Claire L. Evans, Christine Negus, Duane Linklater, Mary Helena Clark and an excerpt by Chris Rice. The full lineup, with descriptions of each film, is below.

Malmed describes the show as:

“The space betweens: Tool Time times ten times time, two-tiered translation, hyperspace hypnospace, hot air balloons, Kurt Kren, the trees, the audition, the proscenium wings, smoke on the water, the stars singing back.”

A program for, of and by the pore-explorers seeking what’s between the seen and what meaning can be gleaned from the synaptic. Sites of transition and transposition reveal that the heat is often in the imaginative distance between the nameable. These artists — whose work has shown cumulatively in contexts like the Whitney Biennial, Documenta, Rotterdam and the Deep Leap Microcinema — each evince a fascination with these nether spaces that is distinct in its method and aims, but work together and apart as friendly bedfellows. The hope is that the spaces between the works—the small ways large files bristle up against each other in the darkness of the cinema—open up the meanings and feelings of their borders.

The lineup:

8 Seasons (excerpt), dir. Chris Rice (2011, color, sound, video, 8.5 min)
excerpted from a 33 minute work
The abutments, transitions and neighborly fences of Tim, his family and his show.

Passage Upon the Plume, dir. Fern Silva (2011, black & white, video, 6 min 44 sec)
“Those who go thither, they return not again.”

OK to GO, dir. Claire L. Evans (2008, color, sound, video, 5 min 45 sec)
Chain of hyper space scenes from films (a collaboration with Mike Merrill). Part of the thing which is so appealing about hyper space scenes in films is the idea that something fantastic and unknown lies at the end of them. In fact, here are the primary uses of Warp Speed/ Hyper Space as plot device:
A) Tunnel to unknown.
B) Escape from danger via total oblivion.
Both represent a kind of inversion, or temporary lifting, of the accepted order.

The Thing Is Not the Thing Named, dir. Deborah Stratman (2012, video, 10:50 min)
In support of experiences that are essentially common, but to which language does not easily adhere, the video passes through places that are both themselves, and stand-ins for others. The title is taken from Aleister Crowley‘s 1918 translation of the Tao Te Ching.

For, Like, Ever, dir. Christine Negus (2010, color, sound, video, 6 min)
A three-part animated video that humorously reflects on oblivion and death.

It’s Hard to Get Into My System, dir. Duane Linklater (2010, video, color, sound, 6 min)
An exercise in interpretation and translation. “The piece poses many questions: Is it possible for these disparate musical forms to communicate? What are the outcomes of this attempted communication?”

Splice Lines, dir. Clint Enns (2012, video, color, 49 secs)
Splices from Kurt Kren’s 6-64 Mama und Papa

By Foot-Candle Light, dir. Mary Helena Clark (2011, video, color, sound, 9 min)
Scenes from the proscenium wings. A film imagined and recounted by foot-candle light. You close your eyes and, suddenly, it is dark.—Mary Helena Clark
Expect surprises.

For a preview, you can see Splice Lines right here: