Tara Cook invites you to the Kudos Gallery, Paddington for screenings and installations from recent SMIC Figtree events - a selection of experimental video art and installations.
Gallery open Wed - Sat 11-5pm (August 2-5 2006)
Opens Tuesday 1 August 6-8pm
a response to the recent SMIC screening Drift, written by Susan Norrie:
“ Memories must make do with their delirium, with their drift “, says Chris Marker in Sans Soleil. “ A moment stopped would burn like a frame of film blocked before the furnace of the projector”
In responding to the video works, sound and performances , curated by David Mackenzie and presented by the Sydney Moving Image Coalition and the Fig Tree Theatre, 13th April 2006, it was interesting to consider how the small, intimate and low tech cinema was like the early days of film, the movie house was called in Persian, tamaashakhanah: that house where one went sight-seeing and ‘walking together ‘. In this context the function of the cinema plays between sites - as a framing device for the artworks and a place that could potentially drown the viewer in a vast reservoir of pure perception .
In titling the screening ‘Drift’ which was in part inspired by the Situationist International theory of the ‘drift’ ( derive) one considers the work that was chosen for this event. The Situationists pyschogeographical practice of mapping emerges through the cinematic gaze as a form of tender cartography and notions of atmospheric drift - negotiating and recording the passage of time.
The Situationists politic is a subtext for this body of works suggesting a need for artists to resist the controls of information disinformation, management and regulation and to depict a glimpse of the world as a revolutionary romantic.
-By Susan Norrie, May 2006.
The Philippine Educational Theatre Arts Leagues Sydney, Labayen Dance USA and Vienna Parreno will show their new piece of hybrid dance, multimedia, theatre performance exploring themes of migration and the Filippino Diaspora.
Thurs May 4, Fri May 5, Figtree Theatre (old NIDA Theatre), Gate 4, High St, UNSW, Kensington, 7.30pm, entry free (your donation appreciated)
Special Guest Presiding over the Opening: H.E. Christine Ortega Ambassador of the Philippines to Australia
The work and its presentation has been supported by Casula Powerhouse.
About the piece:
Perigrinayson is a hybrid performance and multimedia work featuring US-and-Philippine based dancer and choreographer ENRICO LABAYEN (winner of the Isadora Duncan award in 1997) alongside Filipino-Australian actor and director MARS CAVESTANY and young visual artist VIENNA PARRENO.
This dynamic collaboration between the Philippine Educational Theatre Arts Leagues Sydney and Labayen Dance USA explores the passion and energy of Filipino migrant artists working across disciplines, technologies, and artforms. The work sets an example of performative projects that bridge local concerns and global movements.
Soon after its Sydney Preview the show will have its World Premiere at the prestigious 31st UNESCO International Theatre Institute World Congress and Art Olympics of the Nations which will be held in Manila from May 17 - 29. It has also been chosen for a season at the Cultural Centre of the Philippine’s International Festival of Plays to be held in June.
Peregrinasyon (Peregrinations) highlights the complex relationships between adopted home and country of origin. The dance-drama-video triptych reflects the mix of cultural influences and practices that proliferate and shape Filipinos who have left the Philippines in a diaspora that has accelerated in the last 30 years. It is an exploration of the impact migration has had on the changing face of traditional culture as the Philippines becomes a highly multicultural and/or culturally diverse country.
Peregrinasyon (Peregrinations) also focuses on Enrico Labayen and Marcelino Cavestany’s own experience with HIV-AIDS. Drawing on their personal experiences, the work is a process of unmasking and baring of their souls and challenging preconceptions about a topic still the subject of much ignorance and prejudice in the Philippines and many places around the world.
CONTACT: e-mail: viennaparreno@optusnet.com.au, smic@squatspace.com Mobile: Vienna Parenno: 0410 344 737 Mars Cavestany: 0407 216579
Article on Peregrinasyon - Sydney The Filipino-Australian Newspaper
n.b. An Australian Visual Arts Exhibition curated in part by Ms. Ka Yan Tung will run concurrently with the World Premiere of Peregrinasyon at the Cultural Centre of the Philippines for the 31st UNESCO International Theatre Institute World Congress and Art Olympics of the Nations.
Selected Australian artists participating includes Krzysztof Osinski and Tony Twigg amongst others.
Links:
Enrico Labayen
Vienna Parreno
smic presents
drift - video works #5
6pm thursday 13 april 2006
fig tree theatre unsw
(entry via gate 4,
high st kensington)
featuring:
kate murphy, susan norrie, atanas djonov, jamil yamani, louisa dawson, patrick hartigan, adrian davies, tara cook, louise curham, mike cooper, david mackenzie, craig bender, leah mcpherson, caroline huf, seth keen, john douglas, sandra landolt, blake freele, lena obergfell, hobart hughes, carmen esplandiu, johnny newman
‘Drift’ is the fifth screening SMIC has organised around the medium of video, and the fourth to be held at the Figtree Theatre. The title suggests both the act and the art of a continuous observation and documentation, of dislocation, dispossession, and the need for different ways of thinking about the spaces we inhabit and the spaces we don’t.
In part, the idea for the title was inspired by the Situationist International theory of the “drift” (dérive). The Situationists aspired to be psychogeographers, they “intended to cultivate an awareness of the ways in which everyday life is presently conditioned and controlled, the ways in which this manipulation can be exposed and subverted, and the possibilities for chosen forms of constructed situations in the post-spectacular world.” (Plant 1994). ‘Drift’ examines the countless possibilities for challenging and destabilising the forces of control that surround us.
Some works in ‘drift’ were made specifically, as a response to the word as a theme. Others were pulled out of sleep, and some have travelled from interstate and abroad.
‘Drift’ is a collaborative event between SMIC and the UNSW Figtree Theatre, a video/film event, including performance and live sound. SMIC would like to thank all those involved. With thanks especially to Su Goldfish and Mark Mitchell from the Figtree Theatre. Their efforts make possible these ongoing series of screening events.
The screening is a free event and all are welcome. Curated by David Mackenzie
Louise Curham and Sally Golding ran workshops in Brisbane during the OtherFilm Festival, on hand-processing super8 film. Louise has prepared a document which tells you all you need to know to do it yourself. Download it here! (194kb word doc)
Sydney Moving Image Coalition presents
READING ALOUD
a vigil to mark the 3rd anniversary of the Invasion of Iraq & the 3rd anniversary of SMIC
7pm, Mon March 20 2006, ‘Sydney’, 302 Cleveland Street, Surry Hills.
On March 20, a world wide reading of American writer Eliot Weinberger’s text What I Heard About Iraq will take place under the auspices of the Berlin International Literature Festival.
Find the text at http://www.literaturfestival.com/news1_1_2_48.html.
SMIC is hosting a reading in Sydney.
The evening will consist of a reading aloud of the Weinberger text on the war. Copies of the text will be on the walls around the room and on tables. The reading aloud is a vigil – it does not dominate the room, it just takes place. It will take about 90 minutes to complete the reading.
‘Readers’ have been invited but if you would like to read a section, you will be welcome to. It will be possible to show some silent moving image as the text is read – please e-mail smic@squatspace.com if you would like to do this.
[Excerpt]
Eliot Weinberger: What I Heard About Iraq in 2005
In 2005 I heard that Coalition forces were camped in the ruins of Babylon. I heard that bulldozers had dug trenches through the site and cleared areas for helicopter landing pads and parking lots, that thousands of sandbags had been filled with dirt and archeological fragments, that a 2,600-year-old brick pavement had been crushed by tanks, and that the molded bricks of dragons had been gouged out from the Ishtar Gate by soldiers collecting souvenirs. I heard that the ruins of the Sumerian cities of Umma, Umm al-Akareb, Larsa, and Tello were completely destroyed and were now landscapes of craters.
I heard that the US was planning an embassy in Baghdad that would cost $1.5 billion, more expensive than the Freedom Tower at Ground Zero, the proposed tallest building in the world.
I saw a headline in the Los Angeles Times that read: AFTER LEVELING CITY, U.S. TRIES TO BUILD TRUST.
I heard that military personnel were now carrying “talking point” cards with phrases such as “We are a values-based, people-focused team that strives to uphold the dignity and respect of all.”
I heard that 47% of Americans believed that Saddam Hussein helped plan 9/11 and 44% believed that the hijackers were Iraqi. 61% thought that Saddam had been a serious threat to the US and 76% said the Iraqis were now better off.
I heard that Iraq was now ranked with Haiti and Senegal as one of the poorest nations on earth. I heard the United Nations Human Rights Commission report that acute malnutrition among Iraq children had doubled since the war began. I heard that only 5% of the money Congress had allocated for reconstruction had actually been spent. I heard that, in Fallujah, people were living in tents pitched on the ruins of their houses. > [Continues]
article By Sally Christie about SMIC’s Louise Curham, on show in New Zealand.
The article was originally posted here:
http://www.thread.co.nz/article/1853
It is hard to do justice to something you do not understand. But I’ll try because it’s well worth the intellectual exercise checking out exhibitions running at the NZ Film Archive, found at 84 Taranaki Street, Wellington.
Not only do you get a sense of your own history there – DVD screens flashing old familiar newscasters; Phillip Sherry, Dougal Stevenson – but also a sense of offbeat trendy culture with the Space Odyssey 2001-like ‘Mediaspace café’; white and orange plastic chairs in a white room and staff eager to make you at home.
What do they do here exactly? Archive films, and film related props.
What were we doing here? Attending the opening of Louise Curham and Sue Healey’s exhibition “A Film of One’s Own (Fugue Solos)”. Louise Curham is an artist and filmmaker, who sees “Film as art.” Sue Healey is a choreographer who is interested in translating dance onto film. Their collaboration resulted in this tribute exhibition of dance, interlaid and overlaid delicately with film fragments from live performance, outtakes and trims. Curham then applied her shtick, physically treating the film, applying surface scratches, paint and ink. The result is a beautifully moving series of image and dance; art come alive on the canvas, of which we walked into – a black room projecting the film off walls, columns and footstool sized black boxes.
(more…)
Atanas Djonov would like to invite you to the last Sydney Moving Image Coalition video event for 2005
Look Right, Video Works #4
Mon 28th of November 6.30 for 7.30pm start (free entry)
Fig Tree theatre, UNSW Kensington campus, Gate 4 High Street
We are proud to have the Balkan folk song&dance Duo “Vergo” as our special guests.
The artists in the event are:
Martin Sims, Jamil Yamani, David Mackenzie, Atanas Djonov, Sumugan Sivanesan, Ian Howard, Kuba Dorabialski, Caroline Huf, Tara Cook, Mahmoud Yekta, Nathan Thompson, Peter Humble, Veronika Zaharieva,
Yorgo Kaporias, Kate Murphy, Henrietta, Janet Nagly, Carmen Esplandiu, Hobart Hughes and Allan Giddy.
As an artist-run-space for moving image makers and moving image lovers, SMIC welcomes your participation and very much looks forward to your company on the night.
Venue: Fig Tree Theatre, Kensington Campus, UNSW (entry via Gate 4, High Street, Kensington).
Time: Thursday Oct 6, 6pm (screenings start @ 7pm)
Curator: Atanas Djonov
Artists: Atanas Djonov, Kuba Dorabialski, Carmen Esplandiu, Allan Giddy, John Hughes, David Mackenzie, Sam Manning, Vienna Parreno, Martin Sims, Sumugan Sivanesan, Jamil Yamani
Sydney Moving Image Coalition presents a screening program of experimental video art works and an exhibition of photographs and video installations, with special guests the Waterloo choir Nothing Without Belinda.
The works presented at the event all resonate with the idea encompassed in the event’s title. TrainInk stands for the process of expressing and recording ideas, moving through an environment and leaving a continuous trace. The title suggests that video art can be seen as analogous to writing. It involves observing an environment and simultaneously creating a record of this observation, of this act of framing, reflecting and making a permanent statement. TrainInk is also about the transient, the act of moving in which the present becomes history.
For the final programme of works presented at TrainInk, click here [140kb pdf]
For the first time, SMIC has joined forces with the Fig Tree Theatre (UNSW) to present a very special evening of moving image works.
Details:
Saturday 20 Aug 2005, 6pm, Fig Tree Theatre, UNSW (entry via Gate 4, High Street, Kensington).
Participating artists:
Atanas Djonov, Allan Giddy, Peter Humble, Sandra Landolt, David Mackenzie, Dolly McLintock, Krzysztof Osinski, Vienna Parenno, Andrew Smith, Jamil Yamani…
Featured works:
A destruction work, with pieces of furniture towed behind a car until they’re destroyed. A sound work that assigns sounds to colours and creates the soundtrack from passing cars. There’s a piece about landscape and the ennui, loss and failure it embodies in Australia.
Others include video portraiture, and the politics of culture in Sydney.
These are Sydney moving image artists showing their work here now.
About the venue:
The Fig Tree is a lovely old, white single storey building behind the old Tote at Gate 4. Until 1988 it housed NIDA and has had many Australian theatrical luminaries creep its boards. It used to be known as the Old Tote Theatre. The Fig Tree is a comfortable venue with heating and raked seating. It has a motorised screen and a built in data projector with a kick arse stereo sound system. The use of the Fig Tree is made possible through the generosity of Mark Mitchell and Su Goldfish, Production Unit Management staff in the School of Media, Film and Theatre.
Transport:
Buses: from Bondi Junction 400 bus; from Eddy Ave, Central via Anzac Parade and/or via Cleveland Street: 391-399. A pdf map of the UNSW campus can be found here.
