<\/p>\n
PHIL SOLOMON\u2019S AMERICAN FALLS
\n<\/strong>Sunday 23 October 2011, at 4pm
\nLondon BFI Southbank NFT3<\/p>\nPHIL SOLOMON\u2019S AMERICAN FALLS<\/strong><\/p>\nAMERICAN FALLS
\n<\/strong>Phil Solomon, USA, 2010, video, colour, sound, 60 min<\/p>\nConception and Direction \u2013 Phil Solomon
\n<\/strong>Sound Design \u2013 Wrick Wolff & Phil Solomon
\n<\/strong>5.1 and Stereo Mixes \u2013 Wrick Wolff
\n<\/strong>Alchemy \u2013 Phil Solomon & Jessica Betz
\n<\/strong>Optical Printing \u2013 Phil Solomon & Jessie Marek
\n<\/strong>Technical Advisor \u2013 Christopher Osborn<\/p>\nShould anyone imagine that the art of alchemy died with the Middle Ages, Phil Solomon\u2019s American Falls<\/em> testifies to the contrary: both to the possibilities of photographic and digital transformation and to the magical emanations of their fusion. The work is epic in conception and form, with a surface texture that, as it refashions and transmutes archival footage from myriad sources, resembles something between a palimpsest of chemical and photographic strata and the impasto of a painter\u2019s canvas. The incipient visions of Solomon\u2019s previous labours in this style here burst forth, unleashed, with images from America\u2019s collective unconscious.<\/p>\nBurnished bronze and pulsing forward through layers of idiosyncratic techniques, they flesh out a three-framed canvas with \u2018monumental\u2019 aspirations, sometimes invoking the nation\u2019s war memorials. Images are conjured into transient visibility before dissolving back into the recesses of historical memory. This is as much about inviting instant recognition as it is about limiting exposure of the overfamiliar. Similarly, popular songs are gently deconstructed through the rhythmic protractions of an intricate sound design (co-created and mixed by Wrick Wolff) that freshens their nostalgic currency.<\/p>\n
Opening with 1901 footage and a re-enactment of Annie Edson Taylor, the first person to survive going over Niagara Falls in a barrel, allusions to \u2018falls\u2019 pervade: of political and inspirational leaders (from Lincoln to FDR to JFK and King), and soldiers on battlefields (the American Revolution, the Civil War, both world wars, and Korea); from pratfalls of movie comics (Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, and Charlie Chaplin) to baseball heroes crippled by disease (Lou Gehrig). Disillusionment with America\u2019s promise is palpable throughout. In one triptych, George Washington in the central panel is flanked by the text of the Declaration of Independence; but in another the Liberty Bell\u2019s crack is visible in all three panels. Still later, the looming rule of capital, evoked by the credits of Erich von Stroheim\u2019s Greed<\/em>, needs only the central panel to dominate.<\/p>\nIt is impossible to do justice here to the juxtapositions and permutations of these images, or to the aching beauty and emotional resonances of this work. Much of the latter derives from the sheer physiological spectacle of each marble or bronze tableau throbbing into life through Solomon\u2019s midwifery. More than any other independent film or video I can think of from the past decade, American Falls<\/em> invokes the spectre of a nation whose present unravelling is all too rooted in its history. How sad it is to realize that Solomon\u2019s masterwork, painstakingly crafted over thousands of hours, cannot hope to reach as many people as the lamest television commercial. Anyone still touched by the poetic viability of the avant-garde should not miss this opportunity to see it. (Tony Pipolo, Artforum)<\/p>\nWHAT\u2019S OUT TONIGHT IS LOST
\nPhil Solomon, USA, 1983, 16mm, silent, colour, 8 min
\n<\/strong>Adopting its title from a poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay, What\u2019s Out Tonight Is Lost <\/em>is an elegiac film sifting through the unrecoverable. The film is a reflecting pool where vision breaks up. The home we recognize is swallowed in the brume, the light barely penetrates; and the yellow school bus steals us away, delivering us into new clouds, embracing fear. The film has a surface of cracked porcelain and intaglio: the allergic childhood skin of cracks and bruises. This is a film of transubstantiations, the discorporation of human forms into embers. Air looms and blossoms into solidity and nearness \u2026 I hear it breathing. (Mark McElhatten)<\/p>\nWhat\u2019s Out Tonight Is Lost was preserved by Academy Film Archive, Los Angeles.<\/em><\/p>\nPhil Solomon will introduce two different programmes of his earlier 16mm films at Tate Modern on Monday 24 & Thursday 27 October, 2011, from 7pm. <\/em><\/p>\nBack to top<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Alina Rudnitskaya\u2019s humanistic approach to documentary filmmaking often brings out the humour in her chosen subjects. As an introduction to her work, this programme depicts three diverse groups of contemporary Russian women.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[9],"class_list":["post-1687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-london-film-festival-2011","tag-london-film-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwebber.org.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwebber.org.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwebber.org.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwebber.org.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwebber.org.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/markwebber.org.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1687\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwebber.org.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwebber.org.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwebber.org.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}