Program
Notes for Looking is better than feeling you
curated
and introduced by Astria
Suparak
for Ladyfest
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Looking is better than feeling you
"Shake
ya ass, but watch ya self- Show me what you workin with" -Mystikal
With an irreverence for punk rockers, adults like parents and politicians, non-adults
like breasts and babies, and people we generally approve of like artists and
scientists, these works reveal that posers are sometimes better than the real
thing. We're all staging our rebellions, even against ourselves, and wind up
aloof but completely aware of how we look. Baby got back.
1. DANCING GIRLS. Jennifer
Sullivan. Super-8
film to video, as intro installation. 8:50 min. 2002.
Premiere.
A glittery blur of deer-legged, magenta-stained girls dancing; some ecstatically
improvising for daddy's Super-8 camera, some stunned, presenting rote routines
at talent shows.
"A document of girls (including myself) performing in the mid-1980s, the
time when I was growing up. They are expressing themselves instinctually, exuberantly,
self consciously, hysterically. Their dancing seems abstract to me. It is both
authentic and completely theatrical at the same time." -JS
2. FILM SKETCHES. Shannon
Plumb. Film to video, as intro installation.
2:20 min. 1999-2002.
"Each film is silent, black and white, propped, staged, and performed
with a Vaudevillesque style of grace, simplicity and innovation. I am the performer,
the director, stylist and choreographer. The camera is merely a tool to capture
the interactions and discoveries between character and props, actor and spontaneity,
routine and the possibility of breaking the routine." -SP
3. YOU THINK YOU'RE PUNK ROCK BUT YOU'RE NOT. Kirsten
Stoltmann. Video. 3 min. 2000. World premiere.
"Punk Rock is a send up to all the posers out there, me being the finest
of them all - so fuck off!!!" -KS
4. THEA. Miranda
July. Audio. 1:05. 2002.
From "The Drifters", an audio installation commissioned
by the Whitney Museum for the elevators at the 2002 Whitney Biennial.
5. SELF-REFLECTING. Kirsten
Stoltmann. Video. 1:05. 1999.
A brooding one-liner accompanied by the kitchen sink and a bikini. "Possibly,
this is a self-portrait of the artist, but she's not sure." -KS
6.
DROP THAT BABY AGAIN. Karen
Yasinsky. Film to video. 5 min. 1998.
Absent-minded women, curiously forgiving husbands, and plastic babies. Based
on a true story.
7. BOUNCING IN THE CORNER, #36DDD. Dara
Greenwald. Video. 2:35min. 1999.
A late-'90s feminist looks back on the seminal work of performance artist,
sculptor and filmmaker Bruce Nauman. A take off on "Bouncing in the Corner"
where everything is taken off.
8. THE PHONE CALL #1 (from THE DRIFTERS).Miranda
July. Audio. 00:45. 2002.
9. HUMANE RESTRAINT. Ann
Weathersby. Video. Approx. 7 min. 2002. World
Premiere.
"Humane Restraint" engages elements of video, sculpture and
performance, using the body to provoke a physical, psychological and emotional
experience. A man with a video camera encounters a woman's head on the beach
and engages it in dialogue. The camera shakes and mercilessly zooms in and around
the head's features. The body is fully buried for long periods of time, so there
is a complete relinquishing of control. Tensions concerning vulnerability versus
security, repression versus outcry, intellect versus emotion and private versus
public space are explored. The scrutiny of the woman's physiognomy also reflects
the intensity of the gaze, and the dialogue challenges ideas of trust and intimacy.
-AW
10. THE
PHONE CALL #2 (from THE DRIFTERS). Miranda
July. Audio. 00:59. 2002.
11. SLAPSTICKERS
or DIGIT + DIAN. Jacqueline
Goss. Video. 6:10 min. 1999.
"What if Dian Fossy and her favorite mountain gorilla Digit
had survived and moved to Generica, USA? Slapstickers takes their story to new
terrain in order to look for what's at the heart of the Anthropomorphizing human.
Here, one finds language, deceit, and humor are front and center." -JG
12.
DOMESTIC
VIGILANCIA
13. DEATH POSES (from
EVERYDAY PROBLEMS OF THE
LIVING- a serial...) Kathy
High.
Video. 10:10 min. 2000-2.
A year long project about anxieties surrounding living and dying -- or a meditation
on mortality. High, thinking that she might die at 45 in the year 2000, decided
to "perform her death," creating a tape around the topic each month. Her own
pets, Oscar (cat), Ernie (cat), Push (cat) and Lily (dog) also play a major
role in the events that occur each month, as she projects her own fears and
anxieties onto them. The animals humorously embody and thwart her attempts to
die.
14.
NEGATIVE
TEN. Jenny
Stark. Video. 4:11min. 2001.
Edited from a found VHS tape, news footage
is mixed with re-cropped fragments of the Twin Peaks television series and various
war-torn skies including the Gulf War. "Within the context of videotape from
a specific time in history links can be made between historic events and pop
culture." -JS
15. FEAR. Karen
Yasinsky. Film
to video. 5:26 min. 2001
"In the lovely outdoors a man rolls around with a girl on one screen while
on the other he cries. Is he distressed over a horrid memory or is it an unwanted
forbidden desire? Is that a little girl that he's fondling? It's just a doll,
isn't it? The girls are all in school. Airplanes, tears and a loving flight
attendant doing her best to make it all better." -KY
16. FOR
HOME PROJECT.
Colleen
Hennessey. Video.
:30 sec. 2002. Premiere.
Objects in a relationship made in conjunction with the Home Video
Project: artists contributing 30 seconds on the concept of home.
17. MEU
NOME E GAL (My name is Gal). KJ
Mohr and Kelly
Hayes. (Brazil/USA). Video. 5:30 min. 2001.
"A high camp drag performance inspired by Brazilian 'Tropicália' and its
muse, singer Gal Costa. Set against a lush Rio backdrop our star-struck tourist
does the town, and in her search for 'The South American Way' things start bustin'
out all over..." -KM
T.R.T: Approx. 70 minutes.
Previous screenings have included:
Eliete
Mejorado. LEARNING TO RELAX 2.
Video. 5:04 min. 2001
Real-time (one shot ducumentation) performance on cunt power.
8.
Jacqueline Goss. UNIVERSAL SHARK.
Video. 4 min. 1994-1996.
Four dreams about fear of pregnancy and parenting in public places
9. Patty Chang. EELS. Video. 4 min. 2001.
SF Premiere
"Fear-Factor-meets-Chris-Burden performance tape" -Ed Halter, Indiewire.com
12.
Patty Chang. SHAVED (AT A LOSS). Video. 5:25
min. 1998.
Special Pre-Show by Ms. Dominica K.
from Boston, Baton Twirler Extraordinaire!
contact
a@astriasuparak.com for more information
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New York, NY 10009
last update: June 11, 2003