Art in General/CEC Int’l Partners project in Ekatrinburg, St. Petersburg, Kaliningrad and Moscow
June 13-27, 2003
 
TRANSFERENCE
A Program of Contemporary Video Works from Art in General
Curated by Jeanine Oleson, Programs Coordinator, Art in General
 
In this program of experimental short video works, human emotion is explored in terms of alienation, both architecturally and through the mediation of technology, from both popular and historic perspectives. From the co-optation of popular forms such as video games and advertisements to subversive encapsulations of performance within a containing frame, the distance between the artist and the audience or the Self and the Other are interchangeably referenced. 

Peggy Ahwesh She Puppet (2001, 15:00 min, NY) «Why did they bother giving me a kingdom to rule over if there could be no better kingdom than this moment, in which I exist between what I was not and what I will not be?» -Excerpt of voiceover text

Re-editing footage collected from months of playing Tomb Raider, Ahwesh transforms the video game into a reflection on identity and mortality. Trading the rules of gaming for art making, she brings Tomb Raider's cinematic aesthetics to the foreground, and shirks the pre-programmed "mission" of its heroine, Lara Croft. Ahwesh acknowledges the intimate relationship between this fictional character and her player. Moving beyond her implicit feminist critique of the problematic female identity, she enlarges the dilemma of Croft's entrapment to that of the individual in an increasingly artificial world. Voiceover quotations are from The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa, The Female Man by Joanna Russ and jazz mystic Sun Ra.

Julio Soto Invisible Cities (2002, 6:13 min, NY)
Imagine a post-apocalyptic generic urban center. Imagine interiors covered with vines, water and vegetation. Imagine an omnipotent camera, ubiquitous, panning and dollying through urban landscapes of surreal imagery- abandoned buildings, ruined urban centers, deserted cities, nature taking over every space around.

Robby Abate One Mile Per a Minute (2002, 10:00 min, NY) Abate’s video takes a mediated 3D animation journey through American suburbia, a landscape molded by seductive advertising and corporate interests. In the age of the "culture jammed" consumer, One Mile Per a Minute takes us on a psychological road trip across a slightly battered America.

Dave McKenzie Karaoke Dream Machine (2002, 6:00 min, NY)
In McKenzie’s tape, super-8 found footage of a 1960s family is used as the backdrop for a karaoke version of Billy Joel's song New York State of mind, which became a tool of post 9/11 politics. Karaoke Dream Machine combines a tongue-in-cheek nostalgia for the American landscape of the 1960s with the low-brow culture of karaoke.

Patty Chang Fountain (1999, 5:33 min, NY)
In Fountain, Chang, a performance and visual artist, is seen in a neat suit sucking water from a mirror on a public bathroom floor, exploring ideas of self-objectification and consumption. As in all of her work, this tape combines difficult images with wry humor and delves into the realm of the post feminist subject.
Courtesy Jack Tilton/Anna Kustera Gallery, NY

Forcefield, excerpt from ZMTRX:
Berry Face (2002, 3:51 min, NY) 
Meta Radeo (2003, 3:02 min, NY) 
In ZMTRX, extremely rhythmic editing and pulsating, synthesized music create a hypnotic effect reminiscent of some of video's earliest analogue synthesizer experiments. These colorful video effects and powerful electronic soundscapes are used to vividly animate iconic Forcefield images, from the artists in their signature knit suits to a face fashioned from red berries and a blond wig. Berry Face combines a catchy techno beat with repeated flashes of colorful, hexagonal lights and zooms from an inscrutable face fashioned of red berries and a blond wig. In Meta Radeo, long shots of a knit-clad Forcefield character standing in the woods and in the desert are intercut with close-ups of slowly moving earthworms. 

Gabriel de la Mora Sin Titulo (Untitled) (2003, 2:30 min, NY)
In a simple exercise of digital technology, de la Mora places himself in the backward world as the solitary figure moving forward on a street in Mexico. His work concentrates on the act of inverting language and images, and in this piece, with the usage of video, manipulates the medium to place himself as an isolated subject in a mundane environment.

Kirsten Stoltmann Sailor Lady (1999, 3:40 min, CA)
In Sailor Lady, the sounds of a bittersweet shanty song and an image of Stoltmann drinking a bottle of rum into oblivion is intercut with a nostalgic sequence of better days gone by or perhaps the object of her desire. Stoltmann is an artist who crosses the boundaries of media arts, visual arts and music. 

Alix Pearlstein New Man (2001, 1:46 min, NY)
With its reference to television commercials and its minimalist theatricality, New Man continues Pearlstein's wry commentary on gender and the media. Here five shirtless men defiantly face the camera against an austere white backdrop. A disembodied voice counts down to zero, at which point the tableaux's cool surface is broken by an eruption of digital effects. Cast: David Mazzeo, Charles Parnell, Michael Portnoy, Steven Rafazzi, James Urbaniak

Abbey Williams YES (2002, 4:05 min, NY) Examining the relationship between desire and consumption, Williams attempts to break down the binary of our yes-or-no culture, by labeling the differing levels of her desire while riding the train in New York City. Music by Revlon 9.

Peter Geschwind Sound Cut (2002, 2:00 excerpt, Germany)
Sound Cut is an excerpt from Geschwind’s video installation that intercuts short visual sequences of daily household activities into rhythmic patterns. The footage and its original sound was edited by following the structure of a song by the seminal punk band, Dead Kennedys.

Joseph Maida Hotshots (2000, 4:50 min, NY) Maida uses his younger brother’s video footage of a college party to deconstruct the sublimated desires of two guys doing shots of alcohol for the camera. He sets these images of hypermasculine bonding to Diana Ross' gay disco anthem, Love Hangover.

Clifford Owens California Love (2002, 1:00 min, NY)
With a nod to Tupac Shakur’s (2Pac) 1995 rap hit, Owens’ tape becomes a confrontation between the body and the camera as well as an investigation of the issues circulating in hip hop culture- namely sexism and the male gaze. 

Damian Catera Weapons Of Mass Banalization (2002, 2:50 min, NJ)
This video explores the role of American mass media in the dumbing down of complex issues surrounding politics and war for an increasingly gullible public. Catera has re-edited 2001 news footage of a condescending reporter in Iraq describing to the public the “big bombs” that might be dropping on them. 
 

Leah Gilliam Apeshit (1999, 6:23 min, NY) The film, Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973) envisions a troubled future landscape where talking apes and evil humans vie for political power. As gun-toting humans battle stick-baring apes, troubling oppositional relationships and entrenched racial hierarchies emerge. Apeshit revolves around a central question: Is alien-ness a metaphor for the 20th century and the major figure in which power relationships have been embodied within our subconscious? Transferred from Super-8 and then processed using a combination of high-end digital and vintage analog processing techniques, Apeshit puts forth tolerance as an outmoded technology. Is there a relationship between these forgotten formats and the discontinued political ideologies that they depict?

Art in General’s Mission:
Founded by artists in 1981, Art in General provides a laboratory environment for the newest of today’s art, work that is often underrepresented in art museums or commercial galleries. With exhibitions drawn from artists’ submissions, artists’ projects created on site, and a full calendar of public programs, the nonprofit organization has evolved into a magnet and a resource for those interested in new ways of thinking about art. 

Thank you: Holly, Block, Jennifer Gootman, and Naomi Urabe, Art in General; Susan Katz, Elena Kousnetsova, and Barbara Niemczyk, CEC International Partners; John Thomson, Electronic Arts Intermix; Kate Horsfield, Video Data Bank; Daniel Cockburn, V-Tape; Anna Kustera, Jack Tilton Gallery; Robbie Abate; Peggy Ahwesh; Damian Catera; Gabriel de la Mora; Emily Vey Duke/Cooper Battersby; Peter Geschwind; Leah Gilliam; Joe Maida; Dave McKenzie; Clifford Owens; Alix Pearlstein; Julio Soto; Kirstin Stoltmann; and Abbey Williams.

This program was made possible through the support of CEC International Partners, New York State Council on the Arts- Electronic Media and Film Program, and Art in General’s general operating support.

TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 1:23:30
 
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