Date: 25 January 2005 | Season: Owen Land | Tags: George Landow, Reverence
REVERENCE: THE FILMS OF OWEN LAND (FORMERLY KNOWN AS GEORGE LANDOW): Programme One
January 2005—April 2007
International Tour
With Fleming Faloon and Film in Which There Appear, Owen Land was one of the first artists to draw attention to the filmstrip itself. Films like Remedial Reading Comprehension and Institutional Quality question the illusionary nature of cinema through the use of word play and visual ambiguity. By using the language of educational films he proposes an alternative logic for a medium that has become over theorised and manipulated He often parodies avant-garde film itself, mocking his contemporaries by alluding to their work (and previous films of his own), and also by imitating the serious approach of film scholars. On the Marriage Broker Joke manages to combine Japanese marketing executives, pandas, Little Richard, Liberace and Freud.
Owen Land, Remedial Reading Comprehension, 1970, 5 min
Owen Land, Fleming Faloon, 1963, 5 min
Owen Land, Film in Which There Appear Edge Lettering, Sprocket Holes, Dirt Particles, Etc., 1965-66, 4 min
Owen Land, Bardo Follies, 1967-76, 25 min
Owen Land, What’s Wrong With This Picture 1, 1971, 5 min
Owen Land, What’s Wrong With This Picture 2, 1972, 7 min
Owen Land, Institutional Quality, 1969, 5 min
Owen Land, On the Marriage Broker Joke as Cited by Sigmund Freud in Wit and its Relation to the Unconscious or Can the Avant-Garde Artist Be Wholed ?, 1977-79, 18 min
PROGRAMME NOTES
REVERENCE: THE FILMS OF OWEN LAND (FORMERLY KNOWN AS GEORGE LANDOW): Programme One
January 2005—April 2007
International Tour
REMEDIAL READING COMPREHENSION
Owen Land (formerly known as George Landow), USA, 1970, colour, sound, 5 min
Landow rejects the dream imagery of the historical trance film for the self-referential present, using macrobiotics, the language of advertising, and a speed-reading test on the definition of hokum. The alienated filmmaker appears, running uphill to distance himself from the lyrical cinema, but remember, “This is a film about you, not about its maker.”
FLEMING FALOON
Owen Land (formerly known as George Landow), USA, 1963, colour, sound, 7 min
A cinematic equivalent to the illusionistic portraiture of the Flemish painters. In his first 16mm film, Landow proposes that if we accept the reality offered to us by the illusion of depth on the flat plane of the screen, we can then assign reality to anything at will.
FILM IN WHICH THERE APPEAR EDGE LETTERING, SPROCKET HOLES, DIRT PARTICLES, ETC.
Owen Land (formerly known as George Landow), USA, 1965-66, colour, silent, 4 min
The ‘imperfections’ of filmmaking, which are normally suppressed, are at the core of a work that uses a brief loop made from a Kodak colour test. “The dirtiest film ever made,” is one of the earliest examples of the film material dictating the film content. It may seem minimal, but keep looking – there’s so much going on.
BARDO FOLLIES
Owen Land (formerly known as George Landow), USA, 1967-76, colour, silent, 25 min
A shot of a Southern Belle waving to group of tourists on a pleasure boat ride is looped, multiplied and then melted, creating psychedelic abstract images. These globular forms resemble cellular, microscopic or cosmic structures. “A paraphrasing of certain sections of the Tibetan Book of the Dead in motion picture terms.”
WHAT’S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE? 1
Owen Land (formerly known as George Landow), USA, 1971, b/w & colour, sound, 5 min.
A found, utilitarian object, the overtly moralising educational film “How to be a Good Citizen”, is elevated to the status of ‘art’. The film is first presented unaltered and then in Landow’s colour facsimile, which is further modified by applying an opaque matte that creates a spatial paradox.
WHAT’S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE? 2
Owen Land (formerly known as George Landow). USA, 1972, b/w, sound, 7 min
As Landow and his students were testing a new video camera, an elderly man began to talk to them about new technology. This impromptu conversation forms the basis for a comparison of spoken and written language. After being transferred to film, a transcript of the encounter is superimposed over the image.
INSTITUTIONAL QUALITY
Owen Land (formerly known as George Landow), USA, 1969, colour, sound, 5 min
The film is constructed around a found soundtrack in which a strict female voice delivers a test of perception and comprehension. As this test continues, the relationship between sound and image becomes detached and they follow separate paths, a consequence of the filmmaker losing interest in his subject.
ON THE MARRIAGE BROKER JOKE AS CITED BY SIGMUND FREUD IN WIT AND ITS RELATION TO THE UNCONSCIOUS OR CAN THE AVANT-GARDE ARTIST BE WHOLED ?
Owen Land (formerly known as George Landow), USA, 1977-79, colour, sound, 18 min
“Two pandas, who exist only by textual error, run a shell game for the viewer in an environment with false perspectives. They posit the existence of various films and characters, one of which is interpreted by an academic as containing religious symbolism. Finally, Sigmund Freud’s own explanation is given by a sleeper awakened by an alarm clock.” (P. Adams Sitney)
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