Systems of Nature

CHRIS WELSBY: SYSTEMS OF NATURE
London BFI Southbank
7-10 November 2007

This series of programmes begins with a retrospective of single screen 16mm films by Chris Welsby, a British artist whose work explores the representation of nature, the passing of time and the forces of the weather in relation to the filming process.

"In my work the mechanics of film and video interact with the landscape in such a way that elemental processes – such as changes in light, the rise and fall of tide or changes in wind direction – are given the space and time to participate in the process of representation." (Chris Welsby)

The Chris Welsby presentations are complemented by two programmes of recent film, video and digital media, which extend and expand upon Welsby’s subjects and processes, concerned as they are with a variety of landscapes and the ‘natural world’ in relation to technology. These processes take a number of forms and techniques such as time-lapse in the work of Emily Richardson and Jeanne Liotta through to more recent experiments such as Semiconductor’s digital constructions of imaginary weather systems and Susan Collins’ real-time pixel fragmentation of the landscape. A conversation event with Chris Welsby, Catherine Elwes and William Fowler will concentrate on seascapes in the moving image.

Chris Welsby has been exhibiting work since 1969. He is renowned as a landscape artist and pioneer of moving image installations. These screenings accompany the exhibition “Systems of Nature” at the Lethaby Gallery, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design (6 November – 13 December 2007), which presents two of Welsby’s most recent installations for the first time in the UK.

Curated by Steven Ball, Mark Webber and Maxa Zoller for the British Artists’ Film and Video Study Collection at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design.

Drift (Chris Welsby, 1994)

Wednesday 7 November 2007, at 6:30pm, NFT2
IN CONVERSATION, AT SEA

Seascapes have a long history in filmmaking and continue to fascinate moving image artists. Chris Welsby has made a number of works that contemplate the ocean and the inability of the camera, the frame and the viewer to appreciate its enormity; including At Sea (installed at the Lethaby Gallery) and Drift (screened later tonight).

This conversation between Chris Welsby, Catherine Elwes (artist, writer and Reader in Moving Image Art, Camberwell College of Arts) and William Fowler (Curator of Artists’ Moving Image, BFI National Archive) will reflect on the phenomenon of the moving image seascape from early ‘Rough Seas’ films through to contemporary practice.

Sky Light (Chris Welsby, 1988)

Wednesday 7 November 2007, at 8:45pm, NFT2
CHRIS WELSBY: SYSTEMS OF NATURE

Chris Welsby’s films are dialogues between the filmmaker and the natural elements: the wind controls the movements of the camera in Tree and the film speed in Anemometer. Later films address environmental concerns, such as the threat of radiation as a Geiger counter provides Sky Light’s post-Chernobyl soundtrack. Shifting from environmental structuralism to a more observational mode, the final film Drift has the viewer literally drifting off into a world beyond gravity, into an abstract space between sky and sea.

Chris Welsby, Anemometer, 1974, 10 mins
Chris Welsby, Tree, 1974, 5 mins
Chris Welsby, Colour Separation, 1975, 3 mins
Chris Welsby, Stream Line, 1976, 8 mins
Chris Welsby, Sky Light, 1988, 26 mins
Chris Welsby, Drift, 1994, 17 mins

Chris Welsby will introduce the screening and be available for questions.

Redshift (Emily Richardson, 2001)

Friday 9 November 2007, at 8:40pm, NFT2
THE NATURE OF OUR LOOKING

Moving from ocean to sky and back to the land, these six films respond to nature in less programmatic ways. Peter Hutton’s camera explores the coastal landscape and swirling waters of the Irish West Coast, whilst David Gatten immerses raw film stock in seawater, allowing the ocean to inscribe its presence in constantly shifting abstract patterns. Three films use time-lapse and long exposure to reveal the celestial mysteries of night-time, and the final work gently lifts us from our reverie with an ecological warning.

Peter Hutton, Looking At The Sea, 2001, 15 mins
David Gatten, What The Water Said 4-6, 2006, 17 mins
Lucy Reynolds, Lake, 2007, 12 mins
Emily Richardson, Redshift, 2001, 4 mins
Jeanne Liotta, Observando El Cielo, 2007, 17 mins
Michael Robinson, You Don't Bring Me Flowers, 2005, 8 mins

The Sound of Microclimates (Semiconductor, 2004)

Saturday 10 November 2007, at 8:40pm, NFT2
THE NATURE OF SYSTEMS

Technological systems create, fragment and transform landscapes: a long video monitor stream, digitally mutated coastlines and strange urban microclimates introduce fascinating artificial worlds, blurring the boundaries between natural and constructed landscapes. Starting with documentation of Chris Meigh-Andrews’ video installation Stream Line and passing through a variety of spellbinding single-screen film and video environments, the programme also incorporates a presentation of Susan Collins’ most recent internet transmitted real-time reconstruction of Loch Faskally in Perthshire.

Chris Meigh-Andrews, Stream Line (Documentation), 1991, 6 mins
Davide Quagliola & Chiara Horn, Bit-Scapes 135.1_08, 2006, 3 mins
Semiconductor, The Sound of Microclimates, 2004, 8 mins
Thomas Köner, Suburbs of the Void, 2004, 14 mins
Daniel Crooks, Train No.8, 2005, 6 mins
Davide Quagliola & Chiara Horn, Bit-Scapes 135.2_03, 2006, 3 mins
Rachel Reupke, Untitled, 2006, 2 x 90 secs
Rose Lowder, Voiliers et Coquelicots, 2002, 3 mins
Davide Quagliola & Chiara Horn, Bit-Scapes 135.7_13, 2006, 3 mins
Alix Poscharsky, As We All Know, 2006, 8 mins
Susan Collins, Glenlandia, 2006, continuous


at

BFI Southbank
Belvedere Road, South Bank, London, SE1 8XT
Nearest Tube: Waterloo / Embankment
MAP OF AREA

Tickets: £8.60 / £6.25 concessions
Joint Ticket for Wed 7 Nov: £12.50 / £9.25 concessions
BFI members pay £1 less

Box Office: 020 7928 3232

www.bfi.org.uk

...

The exhibition Systems of Nature is at the Lethaby Gallery, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, Southampton Row, London from 6 November – 13 December 2007. Admission Free. Nearest Tube: Holborn.

LFF: Avant-Garde Weekend

LONDON FILM FESTIVAL: AVANT-GARDE WEEKEND
London BFI Southbank
27-28 October 2007

The Festival’s annual celebration of artists’ film and video returns with an international programme of diverse and inventive work, featuring poetic journeys, materialist explorations and ambiguous histories. Artists Carolee Schneemann and Marina Abramovic are featured in special programmes, and Peter Hutton will introduce his stunning new film At Sea. Many artists will be present to discuss their work and Experimenta will occupy the Studio for two days of continuous installations. The ‘avant-garde weekend’ continues to be a unique occasion for London audiences to experience innovative new visions from around the world.

Curated by Mark Webber for The Times BFI 51st London Film Festival.

Capitalism: Child Labor (Ken Jacobs, 2006)

Saturday 27 October 2007, from 12-7pm, Studio, FREE
CAPITALISM: CHILD LABOR

CAPITALISM: CHILD LABOR
Ken Jacobs / USA 2006 / 14 mins (continuous loop)
Ken Jacobs continues his interrogation of archival sources by deconstructing a single stereoscopic photograph from the Victorian era. The image of barefoot children in a textile mill is spun into a critique of capitalism and the workforce of child labour which sustained the industrial revolution. With a dizzying array of visual techniques, space is condensed, expanded, flipped and cropped, accompanied by Rick Reed’s compelling soundtrack.

Seeing Red (Su Friedrich, 2005)

Saturday 27 October 2007, at 2pm, NFT3
THE ‘I’ AND THE ‘WE’

SEEING RED
Su Friedrich / USA 2005 / 27 mins
A video confessional in which the artist expresses her frustration with the onset of middle age, frankly declaring personal anxieties. Interspersed with observational vignettes edited to Bach’s Goldberg Variations (played by Glenn Gould), Seeing Red is ultimately less an admission of crisis than a roar of defiance.

JE SUIS UNE BOMBE
Elodie Pong / Switzerland 2006 / 7 mins
Unprecedented and absolute: The image of a young woman ‘simultaneously strong and vulnerable, a potential powder keg.’

I JUST WANTED TO BE SOMEBODY
Jay Rosenblatt / USA 2006 / 10 mins
American pop singer Anita Bryant, the face of Florida orange juice, led a political crusade against the ‘evil forces’ of homosexuality in the 1970s. Local success was short lived, and a national boycott of Florida oranges was the first sign of her loss of public approval.

REGARDING THE PAIN OF SUSAN SONTAG (NOTES ON CAMP)
Steve Reinke / Canada 2006 / 4 mins
A journey from schoolyard to graveyard, with author Susan Sontag as philosophical guide.

PART TIME HEROES
Mara Mattuschka, Chris Haring / Austria 2007 / 33 mins
Mattuschka’s second adaptation of a piece by Vienna’s ingenious Liquid Loft (following Legal Errorist in 2004) exposes a trio of fractured characters. In the lonely hearts hotel of an unfamiliar zone, the amorphous heroes erratically construct and reveal their unconventional personas.

Total running time approximately 85 mins

Marguerite Duras/Alain Resnais (0.65, 0.85, 1.0 fps)
(David Dempewolf, 2007)

Saturday 27 October 2007, at 4pm, NFT3
PAST IMPERFECT

hysteria
Christina Battle / Canada 2006 / 4 mins
Through the manipulation of drawings of the Salem witch trials, using techniques which include peeling layers of emulsion from the filmstrip, oblique parallels are drawn with modern day hysteria.

DANGEROUS SUPPLEMENT
Soon-Mi Yoo / USA-Korea 2006 / 14 mins
‘Is it possible to see the landscape of the past even though it was first seen by the other’s murderous gaze?’ Dangerous Supplement poetically appropriates footage shot by US military to explore the secrets of the mountain, and the legacy of the Korean War.

CATALOGUE OF BIRDS: BOOK 3
Jayne Parker / UK 2006 / 16 mins
Following World War II, Messiaen’s fascination with birdsong inspired many compositions, and dominates the monumental ‘Catalogue d’Oiseaux’ of 1959. Jayne Parker has created a visual interpretation of the third movement – ’The Tawny Owl and The Woodlark’ – which evokes the habitat and symbolism of these nocturnal birds.

HIS EYE ON THE SPARROW
Bruce Conner / USA 2006 / 4 mins
The power of music transports the founders of the Soul Stirrers gospel quartet back in time to the Depression Era. A poignant refrain by a master of found footage.

MARGUERITE DURAS / ALAIN RESNAIS (0.65, 0.85, 1.0 FPS)
David Dempewolf / USA 2007 / 19 mins
The opening act of Hiroshima Mon Amor has been condensed and structured, with urgent repetition, to reconstitute the dialogue between Duras’ text and Resnais’ vision. Words assume priority as potent images are crudely masked, emphasising details and inviting fresh analysis of this powerful sequence.

HELENÉS (APPARITION OF FREEDOM)
Christoph Draeger / Switzerland 2005 / 18 mins
Helenés combines two examples of propaganda from East and West. A bleak Hungarian instructional film on nuclear attack is presented in its entirely, strategically subtitled with text from George Bush’s inauguration speech (an idiosyncratic interpretation of the concept of freedom).

Total running time approximately 80 mins

Fuses (Carolee Schneemann, 1964-67)

Saturday 27 October 2007, at 7pm, NFT3
CAROLEE SCHNEEMANN PRESERVATIONS

Newly preserved prints. Carolee Schneemann is a multi-media artist whose films, performances, installations and writings are a radical discourse on the body, sexuality and gender.

FUSES
Carolee Schneemann / USA 1964-67 / 29 mins
Fuses is a vibrant celebration of a passionate relationship, openly portraying sexual intercourse without the objectification of pornography. To extend the tactile intimacy of lovemaking to filmmaking, Schneemann treated the filmstrips as a canvas, working by hand to paint, transform and cut the footage into a dense collage. The erotic energy of the body is transferred directly onto the film material. Recently preserved by Anthology Film Archives, this legendary work glows with a clarity unseen since its debut in the 1960s.

KITCH’S LAST MEAL
Carolee Schneemann / USA 1973-76 / c.60 mins (double screen)
The moving conclusion to the autobiographical trilogy which began with Fuses, Kitch’s Last Meal documents the routines of daily life. It was shot on the Super-8 home movie format and is projected double screen (one image above the other) as an interchangeable set of 18-minute reels. The soundtrack mixes personal reminiscences with ambient sounds of the household, and includes the original text used for Schneemann’s 1975 performance ‘Interior Scroll’. Time passes, a relationship winds down and death closes in: filming and recording stopped when the elderly cat Kitch, Schneemann’s closest companion for two decades, died. Each performance of the film in its original state was a re-ordering of the visual and aural materials, arranged by the artist according to mood and environment. For the preservation print, three pairs of reels have been selected and blown up to 16mm.

Total running time approximately 80 mins

The preservation of Fuses was supported by the University of Chicago Film Studies Center and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. The preservation of Kitch’s Last Meal was supported by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

Water Spell (Sandy Ding, 2007)

Saturday 27 October 2007, at 9pm, NFT3
MYSTERIOUS EMULSION

WATER SPELL
Sandy Ding / USA 2007 / 42 mins
A journey from realism to a supersensory realm, slipping under the surface and between molecules at a microscopic scale. Channeling the subconscious, Water Spell is both odyssey and invocation; a ritual of transformation and retinal blast. The film releases the energy locked within its frames through flickering pulsations of light.

BLUE MONET
Carl E. Brown / Canada 2006 / 56 mins (double screen)
Rarely shown in the UK, Carl Brown is a long-established film artist whose practice is dedicated to the modification of images by chemical means. Blue Monet is an homage to the French Impressionist, and an attempt to bring the Monet experience into the realm of cinema. Through the ebb and flow of intricate imagery, water lilies eternally blossom and fade with otherworldly grace. Brown has used his alchemical techniques to transfer Monet’s sense of colour, light, sky and water onto film. Viewed in spacious double-screen and enhanced by swathes of sound, this film is an immersive experience.

Total running time approximately 100 mins

Now Wait for Last Year (Rachel Reupke, 2007)

Sunday 28 October 2007, from 12-7pm, Studio, FREE
NOW WAIT FOR LAST YEAR

NOW WAIT FOR LAST YEAR
Rachel Reupke / UK-China 2007 / 9 mins (continuous loop)

In response to the rapid pace of property development in Beijing, Reupke references the visual style of architectural practice and corporate videos to present a sequence of fixed views of urban landscapes. Buildings which share the characteristics of both traditional and futuristic design are displayed, but all is not what it seems. Digital images cannot be trusted: these could be plans for future structures or computer-aided fantasy.

The Ivalo River Delta (Patrick Beveridge, 2007)

Sunday 28 October 2007, at 2pm, NFT3
OVER LAND AND SEA

THE IVALO RIVER DELTA
Patrick Beveridge / UK 2007 / 17 mins
Shot within the Arctic Circle in northern Lapland, the film documents the landscape and lively night sky of an icy wilderness. The Aurora Borealis and other extraordinary phenomena are captured through long exposures and stunning time-lapse photography.

AT SEA
Peter Hutton / USA 2007 / 60 mins
Peter Hutton has modestly spoken of his work as being ‘a little detour’ from the history of cinema but perhaps he is following a path that others have neglected, or are yet to discover. Typified by fixed shots of extended duration, his concentrated gaze builds a bridge between early cinema, landscape painting and still photography, evoking Lumière, Turner and Stieglitz. Hutton’s camera often records the subtle changes of light and atmospheric conditions of rural and urban locations, and has frequently been directed toward nautical themes. This new film is essentially about the birth, life and death of large merchant ships. Following the construction of the vessels in South Korea and the passage of a massive container ship across the North Atlantic, it ends with images of shipbreaking in Bangladesh. At Sea is a real tour-de-force, in which the weight and scale of its subject is conveyed by masterful cinematography over a series of breathtaking compositions.

Total running time approximately 80 mins

Note: Peter Hutton will present a screening of his early work at Tate Modern on Monday 29 October 2007.

Pitcher Of Colored Light (Robert Beavers, 2007)

Sunday 28 October 2007, at 4pm, NFT3
THE PERCIPIENT IMAGE

DISCOVERIES ON THE FOREST FLOOR 1-3
Charlotte Pryce / USA 2007 / 4 mins
‘Three miniature, illuminated, hagiographic studies of plants observed and imagined, hand-processed and optically printed.’ (Charlotte Pryce)

THE SKY WALKS ME HOME
Allen D. Glass II / USA-China 2005 / 24 mins
A journey through China, visiting northern provinces, Inner Mongolia, Tibet and Beijing. The filmmaker travelled alone, photographing the landscape and inhabitants of this extraordinary region with a keen and compassionate eye.

THE CROSSING
Timoleon Wilkins / USA 2007 / 6 mins
Crowns of light and subtle gradations of colour are refracted through extreme close-ups of natural phenomena. Moments of sentience, an elevation of consciousness.

THE BREATH
Minyong Jang / Korea 2007 / 10 mins
‘A respiratory exchange between me and a bamboo forest.’ (Minyong Jang)

PITCHER OF COLORED LIGHT
Robert Beavers / USA 2007 / 24 mins
Following the completion of his 17-film cycle ‘My Hand Outstretched’, Beavers travelled to New England to photograph the solitude of his mother’s house. Employing a more intimate approach to filming, he created this tender portrait which contrasts a dark interior with the vibrancy of an abundant garden. As seasons pass, the camera searches through shadows, conveying the slowed pace of life in old age.

Total running time approximately 70 mins

Seven Easy Pieces by Marina Abramovic (Babette Mangolte, 2007)

Sunday 28 October 2007, at 7pm, NFT3
Tuesday 30 October 2007, at 7:30pm, Studio
SEVEN EASY PIECES BY MARINA ABRAMOVIC

SEVEN EASY PIECES BY MARINA ABRAMOVIC
Babette Mangolte / USA 2007 / 93 mins

For one week in November 2005, Yugoslavian artist Marina Abramovic gave seven consecutive performances in the rotunda of the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, presenting her own works alongside interpretations of what are now regarded as seminal performance pieces by artists such as Joseph Beuys and Bruce Nauman. Actions that were once performed to select audiences in studios or small galleries were transformed into public spectacle. The artist’s own ‘Lips of Thomas’ is an intense ritual that repeatedly subjects the body to physical pain, being clearly related to her country’s war torn past. Other uncompromising works address sexuality (Vito Acconci, ‘Seedbed’), confrontation (Valie Export, ‘Genital Panic’) and suffering (Gina Pane, ‘The Conditioning’). The performances, executed with extraordinary discipline and composure, test the thresholds of endurance and determination. Babette Mangolte’s mesmerising document of this event condenses the entire series into 90 minutes. The camera, cool and detached, rarely strays from the artists’ body, detailing mental and physical tension with the sharp clarity of high definition video. Live art, best experienced in the moment, has rarely been captured with such atmosphere.

The Object Which Thinks Us: OBJECT 1 (Samantha Rebello, 2007)

Sunday 28 October 2007, at 9pm, NFT3
THE ANAGOGIC CHAMBER

FILM FOR INVISIBLE INK, CASE NO: 71: BASE-PLUS-FOG
David Gatten / USA 2006 / 10 mins
‘Just barely a whisper. The minimum density, the slightest shape. A series of measurements, an equation for living. The edge of what matters, the contours of an idea. A selection of coordinates for finding one’s way back.’ (David Gatten)

SHADOW TRAP
Greg Pope / UK-Norway 2007 / 8 mins
Shards of emulsion produced during an auto-destructive film performance have been layered and structured onto clear 35mm. Extending across the soundtrack area, the synaesthetic image creates an intense volley of sound and light.

THE OBJECT WHICH THINKS US: OBJECT 1
Samantha Rebello / UK 2007 / 8 mins
Utilitarian objects, related to health and hygiene, rendered in unconventional ways. This unsettling film questions the way that we relate to our surroundings by exploring the ‘radical otherness’ of things.

fugitive l(i)ght
Izabella Pruska-Oldenhof / Canada 2005 / 9 mins
Adrift on the mists of time, archival images of Loïe Fuller’s ‘Serpentine Dance’ shimmer forth and dissolve in folds of abstract colour.

SICK SERENA AND DREGS AND WRECK AND WRECK
Emily Wardill / UK 2007 / 10 mins
A farce of fractures: part study of allegorical stained glass windows, part fiction of disparate doppelgangers.

VICTORY OVER THE SUN
Michael Robinson / USA 2007 / 13 mins
Viewed through science fiction or scientific innovation, the future is as far away now as it ever was. Sites of past World’s Fairs witness battles between good and evil, the spirit world and the cold hard light of day.

TODAY!
Jessie Stead, David Gatten / USA 2007 / 11 mins
‘Touch what you see when you find it or pick it up. Fall off tomorrow’s promise, not injured and again. In the woods there is snow, in the water there is sugar, bodies are made of salt and (yesterday is unaware).’ (Jessie Stead & David Gatten)

Total running time approximately 75 mins

Note: Festival guest David Gatten will lead a practical workshop on the use of text in 16mm filmmaking on Thursday 25 October 2007. See separate announcement.


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Standard ticket price is £8.50

Book online at www.lff.org.uk
Telephone Box Office: 020 7928 3232
Book in person at BFI Southbank

For full booking info see www.lff.org.uk

LFF: David Gatten Workshop

LFF: DAVID GATTEN WORKSHOP
London BFI Southbank
25 October 2007

As a prelude to this year's London Film Festival Avant-Garde Weekend, American artist David Gatten leads a one-day, practical workshop on the use of text in 16mm filmmaking. The workshop is suitable for both beginners and experienced practitioners. Places are extremely limited, so book early to avoid disappointment. Presented in association with no.w.here.

David Gatten

Thursday 25 October 2007, from 10am-5pm, BFI Southbank
DAVID GATTEN: THE IMAGE & THE WORD (WORKSHOP)

Throughout the history of cinema, images and text have been combined on-screen in a variety of ways and for a range of reasons. Silent-era comedy, mid-century newsreels, avant-garde films and home movies have used words to tell stories, convey facts and explore the enjoyments and anxieties of reading.

In this day-long workshop, Brooklyn artist David Gatten will provide an overview of such practice, with particular attention to filmmakers who have deployed on-screen text to investigate the way text functions as both image and language, the border between the legible and illegible, and the limits of what can be known through words.

David Gatten has made prominent use of the printed word in the ongoing series The Secret History of the Dividing Line (sections screened here in previous years) and his recent Film for Invisible Ink, Case No: 71: Base-Plus-Fog (showing on 28 October).

Following introductory screenings of relevant works, participants will make their own films using a variety of processes, including direct-on-film applications, ink-and-cellophane tape transfers, slide projections, close-up cinematography, in-camera contact printing and more.

Tickets: £35 (standard) / £25 (concessions & no.w.here members)
Box Office: 020 7928 3232, online at www.lff.org.uk or in person at BFI Southbank.

Tickets go on sale on 29 September 2007. (26 September 2007 for BFI members.)
Places are extremely limited, so book early to avoid disappointment.
Additional tickets or returns may be available in the days before the event.