Fwd: FESTIVAL REVIEW

Begin forwarded message:

> From: "N O T S T I L L A R T" <[email protected]>
> Date: Tue May 20, 2003 6:51:14 PM US/Eastern
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: FESTIVAL REVIEW
>
> Thanks to all the artists and musicians that participated this past
> weekend in the 8th Annual Not Still Art Festival of non-narrative
> and abstract electronic motion imaging and music/sound design.
>
> Overheard during intermission:
> "Several people said that they never get the chance to see this kind
> of art because it is so rarely produced. Anthology Film Archives
> (NYC) used to do it, but no more……"
> "Artists get an opportunity to see and share which is important
> because the work is typically created in extreme isolation."
>
> ***********>>>>>>><<<<<<<<************
> LIVE PERFORMANCE:
> ::::Martijn Tellinga, attending from The Netherlands, opened the
> Friday evening performance with sampled noise from Amsterdam
> in concert with an impromptu processed video sampling of Smith
> Street activity by Carol Goss.
> ::::Janene Higgins mixed graceful, luscious, swirling layers of New
> York sites to the intricate electronic guitar and computer processing
> of Elliott Sharp.
> ::::BopAnts finished us off with superb improvised electronic jazz
> (Marc /electric-treated guitar, Mitchel Ahern/lid, John
> Voight/electro-acoustic bass, Katt Hernandez/electric violin,
> William Buchanan-drums). Walter Wright's geometric and staccato
> shredded video was rendered live on his personally coded Targa
> board.
>
> ***********>>>>>>><<<<<<<<************
> The International Screening was preceeded by a Saturday
> afternoon of Previews and Talks by the artists.
> Many secrets were revealed:
>
> ::::John Power, who attended from Melbourne Austrailia, explained
> the dense layering of subliminal images in his :90 piece,
> "Freteration", including a jelly fish which no one could identify.
>
> ::::Kitao Sakurai represented media artist Kasumi. When asked
> how long he has known her, he replied, "She gave birth to me." He
> then proceeded to tell us that she had a concert career as a
> classical lutist under a different name. He described Kasumi's work
> process and studio environment, which is the environment he grew
> up in.
>
> ::::We discovered that the beautiful computer animations and
> musical compositions created regularly by Stephanie Maxwell &
> Allan Schindler are not the only thing they collaborate on. Their
> two sons attended and we found that they regularly match up their
> respective students at Eastman School of Music and Rochester
> Institute of Technology for joint projects.
>
> ::::Phyllis Bulkin Lehrer read the tea leaves for us - when we were
> sure it was mulch! Her preformance-like cell frame animation was
> all done digitally.
>
> ::::Reynold Weidenaar showed us version #3 of 'Hang Time on
> Jones Street', which this time includes a clarinet track. The base
> track is composed entirely of three short location sound samples.
>
> ::::Kyra Garigue, another trained classical musician, turned
> photographer, is now messing with all her household appliances.
> intrigued us all with her startling close audio capture and musical
> rendering of ice and flush.
>
> ::::Bob Mataranglo revealed that the Venus of Wildendorf makes
> frequent appearances in all his work - not just his piece, 'Venus
> Does Video'.
>
> ***********>>>>>>><<<<<<<<************
> On Saturday night the NSA International Screening received
> applause after each piece.
>
> ::::Geoff Adams' delightful 'Birdbeat (Fugue)' opened and set the
> theme for the first half of the program. The macho war of the
> worlds fought at the birdfeeder was followed by Phyllis Bulkin
> Lehrer's 'Moon Worshipers', which brought us subterranean, where
> we could still hear the birds, but were sure the worms had the upper
> hand.
>
> ::::William Brown's "Mexico Burning" was entrancing in its power
> and simplicity - and lack of explanations - especially for the fire
> eater-blowers, which we won't soon forget.
>
> ::::'passe-partout', the glorious abstract animation of Stephanie
> Maxwell and constructed electronic voices, chimes and percussion
> of Allan Schindler dazzled us with its variety and playfulness.
>
> ::::'L'anatomie du desir', visual montage by Dinorah de Jesus and
> sound design by Gustavo Matamoros elicited sighs and gasps -
> the connection between sex and parenthood couldn't be more
> natural.
>
> ::::Kyra Garigue's 'Toilet' humourously transitioned us from the
> bedroom to the institutional bathroom, halls, laboritories of
> Slankard's Room Tone #1, which made raucus music of an empty
> university building.
>
> ::::Kyra's 'Ice' cubes were crystalline and clinking beyond belief,
> and led us directly into Carol Goss' 'Zwischenraum' which swept us
> from warm to cold, fan to ice storm.
>
> ::::Brit Bunkley as succinctly as possible shared what could be
> 'Lost' and 'Found' if we lost it all. Bunkley's lost & found object
> turns out to be a rubber duckie, and so it should come as no
> surprise, that Jung-Chul Hur (video) and Vichaya Vatanasapt
> (music), both from South Korea, put swans twitching to a calliope
> song.
>
> The second half of the program opened with John Power's
> 'Freteration', which thrusts the possibility of annihilation upon us,
> followed by Kasumi's 'Jimmy' about a young boy who is annihilated
> from within.
> ::::Lest we become morose, Bob Mataranglo's 'Venus Does Video'
> whips us into arcade ambience, where annihilation is followed by
> reincarnation. Sylvia Pengilly's 'Haunted Resonance' is the perfect
> afterlife, with fractured cathedrals, echoes and cries.
>
> ::::'The Fall', by Martijn Tellinga and Sami Kallinen describes a
> more existential and self conscious passing.
>
> ::::Edward Ramsay-Morin's 'In Here Out There' puts us into reaches
> of space without leaving the Renaissance. And Stephan Larson's
> 'Duality (balance)' literally propels us into a light hearted abstract
> space of twists and torques…
>
> ::::Reynold Weidenaar's 'Hang Time on Jones Street' brings us
> back to earth, particularly Greenwich Village, where we see and
> hear architectural appurtenances. We are then catapulted into
> 'Times Square', Muriel Magenta's highly collaborative computer
> animation of our favorite light show.
>
> ::::Matt Costanza's (animation) and Kozue Jinnouchi's (music)
> 'Reverberations' closes the show with a tour de force of exotic
> musical transitions and simple abstract graphics that act as a
> sorbet after a feast.
>
> Curator: Carol Goss
>
> ***********>>>>>>><<<<<<<<************
> Not Still Art makes VHS copies of the screenings available for only
> $39.95 in the hopes that as many people will see this work as
> possible. Order from the website: http://www.improvart.com/nsa/
> The 8th. Annual Not Still Art International Screening tape will be
> available mid-June.
>
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>
> N O T S T I L L A R T
> http://www.improvart.com/nsa/
> [email protected] FAX: 1.607.264-3476
> P.O. Box 496, Cherry Valley, NY 13320-0496
>
> NSA is a sponsored project of the New York Foundation for the
> Arts.
>