TAKE 291: 23-06-2005
Film / 2005
01/02
Press release
TAKE 291
Thursday 23rd June 2005
ERIKA YEOMANS - CHUBBY BUDDY('THE LAST CASTRATO') (Super 8mm and DV, 13 minutes)
A 'home movie about a man who loses everything in order to act upon some peculiar impulses - "This entertaining short features the deadpan narration of its protagonist as he describes his life leasing up to an event when he 'ruined someone's sense of privacy ...full of bracing black humour and a fragmented intriguing tone that's both creepy and funny at the same time" (Rich Cline. Shadows on the Wall)
DAVID HANDFORD - ZEITGESIT WHORE (Super 8mm, 5 minutes)
Rough cut found footage to accompany sound in live shows of Chapel Couture by Ministry of Defiance, creating an exhilarating and enveloping sonic visual experience,
www.postotticerecords.com
TANYA URY - KOLNISCH WASSER (Betacam SP, 33 minutes)
A split-screen video of 7 filmed live performances (1993-97), completed in 2004. A tattoo is a religious taboo; a tattooed person would not be allowed a burial in a Jewish cemetery. On 6th February 1993, in a small tattoo shop in Cologne, Germany, Tanya Ury had the number 1711, tattooed onto her right thigh. 4711 is the number of the famous Eau de Cologne,
'Kölnisch Wasser'. Many members of Ury's Jewish family, who had been citizens of Cologne, were deported from there to concentration camps.
The video performance is dedicated to victims of sexual exploitation, violence. of racism and genocide. A camera lens may convey media images from Auschwitz, Bosnia and the degradation of women in pornography but the separation of time and location restrains our sense of moral responsibility.
The tattoo documentation was filmed in 1993. In the complete video/performance the live action occurs elsewhere - in another room or another building - the video images were relayed to the spectators by cable.
JASON VAUGHAN - LEAVING THE GARDEN (Mini DV and Super 8mm, 4 minutes)
Created using found imagery discovered on a VHS tape in a junk shop in South London in 2004. The footage appears to date from the 50s or 60s, presumably shot by an amateur cameraman, or home-movie maker of the time. Taking one minute of the 20 on the original tape, the film has been digitally manipulated and edited to serve in a dreamlike context, thus reflecting my interest in myth, fairy tale and the unconscious. The garden of the title is a reference to the edenic state of childhood, which the children in the film - through rehearsing adult roles, are preparing to depart.
INTERVAL
RUTH NOVACZEK - SENSE (16mm, 3 minutes 30 seconds)
A short narrative about dislocation, employing cityscapes, sampled and mixed soundtrack, text and voiceover. Set in New York and Venice, 'Sense jumps across the Atlantic, weighing up notions of old and new, of loss and memory, in a surreal road movie.
DAVE GRIFFITHS - HEATWORK FOR SPARKLERS AND SPYCAMS (DV, 5 minutes and 20 seconds)
Sonic and optical inscription utilising basic technology and a performative working process. The spectacle is both a coding of the course matter. and revelation and remembrance of earlier media forms.
GRANT WILKINSON - C (Super 8mm, 9 minutes)
A twist through a dream world. From the city, through a fairground and a forest, to the sea, is an exploration of what it is like to look at the world through a viewfinder for the first time, old memories captured through a new way of seeing.
ELLIE REES - ART MUST BE BEAUTIFUL (DV, 5 minutes)
A satirical homage to the formidable Marina Abramovic, involving a black wig and various domestic brushes.
DAVID PALAZON - CULTURAL PANDEMONIUM (DV, 1 minute 15 seconds)
I asked the participants to express themselves through a noise, the mix of cultures describing the origin of influence.
ANDREW KOTTING - HUB BUB IN THE BAÖBABS (1989, 16mm, 30 minutes)
Set in the mythological land of 'man-eating' trees, we watch as the author wanders aimlessly amongst the forest. The soundtrack is packed, hugger mugger with voices bombarding him with their folkloric wisdom. He often appears possessed and even watches from inside the glades as lady greensleeves frolics amongst the leaves. - A.K. (Madagascar was referred to by the Victorians as 'land of man-eating trees': due to sacrificial offerings made to the trees.) Andrew Kötting is one of Britain's most intriguing artists, and perhaps the only film-maker currently practising who could be said to have taken to heart the spirit of visionary curiosity and hybrid creativity exemplified by the late Derek Jarman. Formally exploratory and aesthetically innovative, like Jarman he is also a great collaborator, building around his various projects a community of shared interest, while anchoring his prolific production in an ongoing report on the lives of those closest to him.
"Landscape art, humour and performance in motion... A dada classic." - A. Crombie-Rodgers, Performance Magazine 1989.
Take 291 is curated by Charlie Phillips for 291 Gallery