Monday, June 28, 2010
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
TROLL: NEW WORK PRESENTED BY CTRL+W33D
CTRL+W33D PRESENTS NEW WORK BY JACOB MEEHAN, BRAD TROEMEL, KARI ALTMANN, ANDREW LAUMANN, MICHAEL MAGNAN, PATRICK DYER, DYLAN REECE, CHRIS UDEMEZUE, SCOTT HUG, BEN SCHUMACHER, CODY CRITCHELOE, MATT LIFSON, JARROD BECK, ELIJAH BURGHER, DANIEL LEYVA, LAZARO RODRIGUEZ, BEN AQUA, DA SUL KIM, TRAVESS SMALLEY, MARK SPALDING, KRISTIN SMALLWOOD, IVAN LOZANO, KHALID AL GHARABALLI, SHAWN MAXIMO, BORNA SAMMAK, FATIMA AL QADIRI, JASON VILLEGAS, PAUL CUPO, VENUS JAZMIN SOTO, ADAM RADOKOVICH AND ANTHONY THORNTON
AT ENVOY ENTERPRISES, JULY 1-15
"Trolling is a game about identity deception, albeit one that is played without the consent of most of the players. The troll attempts to pass as a legitimate participant, sharing the group's common interests and concerns; the newsgroups members, if they are cognizant of trolls and other identity deceptions, attempt to both distinguish real from trolling postings, and upon judging a poster a troll, make the offending poster leave the group. Their success at the former depends on how well they—and the troll—understand identity cues; their success at the latter depends on whether the troll's enjoyment is sufficiently diminished or outweighed by the costs imposed by the group." - Judith S. Donath, "Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community", 1999
"Troll as gay slang is amongst the lexicon of the cant Polari used in the gay subculture in Britain which has become more mainstream with transcontinental travel and online communication. As a Polari word, troll can mean ‘to walk effeminately’, or ‘to walk, seeking sex’. Trolling can be used almost interchangeably with cruising and like much of Polari usage was probably meant to disguise what was being talked about because being gay was and still is taboo and discussing gay sex in any public area can be risky." - Paul Baker, "Polari - The Lost Language of Gay Men", 2002
TROLL is a group exhibition instigated by CTRL+W33D to examine the act of trolling as a sexual, cultural, and ethical practice. To troll is to sift through image and text, filtering and re-contextualizing subject-significant objects; it is baiting and malicious comment made behind the anonymity of the Web, soliciting argument for the purpose of breakdown and chaos; to troll is sexual practice, to cruise for sex, to seek partners anonymous or otherwise.
In the gallery setting, CTRL+W33D seek to exhibit works that examine various aspects and functions of the act of trolling and their influence on physical work, using trolling's threefold definition not as exclusive to the internet, but as a lens with which to view three fundamental methodologies, each in turn consumptive, productive, and destructive.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Are you a Zombie or a Witch?
Friday, June 18, 2010
Engender Trouble
I will have a couple of drawings in "Engender Trouble" at Iceberg in Chicago. It is an exhibition of two new videos by Doug Ischar, "come lontano" and "CB," the latter in collaboration with his partner, Tom Daws, accompanied by a small exhibition curated by Doug of works by Erin Leland, Michael Sirianni, and myself. Description from the press release of Doug's exceptional videos below.
New work by Doug Ischar, Doug Ischar/Tom Daws and an exhibition of new work by Elijah Burgher, Erin Leland and Michael Sirianni
‘come lontano’
come lontano (2010) is a perverse historical romance in which two lives are exposed, inter-mixed, doused with sentiment, and – hopefully - redeemed. The work revolves around a central ‘couple’ - Pier Paolo Pasolini and Maria Callas. There is a third main character, an ambiguous villain made of steel, glass and rubber. Each member of our central couple has her/his own external distractions which impinge – to varying degrees - on their brief, ecstatic encounter. This encounter was in fact a cinematic collaboration; it’s product the film Medea (1969)
come lontano is a formal experiment in which cinematic tropes serve as organizing devices for a work which anxiously seeks to distinguish itself from post-modern precedent. It hates with all its heart the notion of appropriation. It prefers theft, seduction, and passion - even if the theft is aggravated, the seduction botched, the passion unrequited. One might view the come lontano as a meager analog to Pasolini’s masterpiece, Salo, in which the pleasures of the masters – in this case the filmmaker – are taken to monstrous extremes for which no apology is offered, no acquittal sought.
come lontano is a heartfelt homage to two singular artists whose utterly different lives, personas, and politics intersected briefly in the production of one radiant film, leaving them forever changed. (NTSC; 22 minutes) World premier.
‘CB’
CB (2010) is an experimental bio-pic: its heroine, Charlotte Brontë. A collaboration between Doug Ischar and Tom Daws, CB was commissioned by the Laumeier Museum, St. Louis, for their inaugural Nightlight series; it premiered in St. Louis on June 11th.
The film was inspired by a 1976 audio recording of a séance with Charlotte Brontë, of which the film makes ample use. But the séance audio is merely the tip of the affective iceberg as its heroine turns out to have an emotional – not to mention intellectual – life of epic proportions. Her searing letters – another primary element in the video – throw the eerie platitudes of the séance into razor-sharp relief and disclose a 19th century woman whose brief life was both an artistic triumph and a relentless battle against grief, loss, and despair. Her dark moments – confided in her letters – drove the film far beyond the initial ambitions of its makers. ‘CB’ uses footage from a 1947 Hollywood production of Jane Eyre – co-staring a very young Elizabeth Taylor (un-credited) – to augment enactments of scenes inspired by the ambiguous nature – both conversation with the dead and univocal performance - of the séance audio. Staring Erin Leland, Charlotte Geissler, Jalyn Mosely, and Gwendolyn Geisler; cinematography by Mike Gibisser; concept, research, editing and direction by Doug Ischar and Tom Daws. (high-definition video; 16.5 minutes) Chicago premier.
New work by Doug Ischar, Doug Ischar/Tom Daws and an exhibition of new work by Elijah Burgher, Erin Leland and Michael Sirianni
‘come lontano’
come lontano (2010) is a perverse historical romance in which two lives are exposed, inter-mixed, doused with sentiment, and – hopefully - redeemed. The work revolves around a central ‘couple’ - Pier Paolo Pasolini and Maria Callas. There is a third main character, an ambiguous villain made of steel, glass and rubber. Each member of our central couple has her/his own external distractions which impinge – to varying degrees - on their brief, ecstatic encounter. This encounter was in fact a cinematic collaboration; it’s product the film Medea (1969)
come lontano is a formal experiment in which cinematic tropes serve as organizing devices for a work which anxiously seeks to distinguish itself from post-modern precedent. It hates with all its heart the notion of appropriation. It prefers theft, seduction, and passion - even if the theft is aggravated, the seduction botched, the passion unrequited. One might view the come lontano as a meager analog to Pasolini’s masterpiece, Salo, in which the pleasures of the masters – in this case the filmmaker – are taken to monstrous extremes for which no apology is offered, no acquittal sought.
come lontano is a heartfelt homage to two singular artists whose utterly different lives, personas, and politics intersected briefly in the production of one radiant film, leaving them forever changed. (NTSC; 22 minutes) World premier.
‘CB’
CB (2010) is an experimental bio-pic: its heroine, Charlotte Brontë. A collaboration between Doug Ischar and Tom Daws, CB was commissioned by the Laumeier Museum, St. Louis, for their inaugural Nightlight series; it premiered in St. Louis on June 11th.
The film was inspired by a 1976 audio recording of a séance with Charlotte Brontë, of which the film makes ample use. But the séance audio is merely the tip of the affective iceberg as its heroine turns out to have an emotional – not to mention intellectual – life of epic proportions. Her searing letters – another primary element in the video – throw the eerie platitudes of the séance into razor-sharp relief and disclose a 19th century woman whose brief life was both an artistic triumph and a relentless battle against grief, loss, and despair. Her dark moments – confided in her letters – drove the film far beyond the initial ambitions of its makers. ‘CB’ uses footage from a 1947 Hollywood production of Jane Eyre – co-staring a very young Elizabeth Taylor (un-credited) – to augment enactments of scenes inspired by the ambiguous nature – both conversation with the dead and univocal performance - of the séance audio. Staring Erin Leland, Charlotte Geissler, Jalyn Mosely, and Gwendolyn Geisler; cinematography by Mike Gibisser; concept, research, editing and direction by Doug Ischar and Tom Daws. (high-definition video; 16.5 minutes) Chicago premier.
Prayers for Children, Issue Two: Ugly Ducklings Come Home
I submitted a group of drawings to the second issue of Prayers for Children, "Ugly Ducklings Come Home." Take a look here. Thanks to Greg and Jody for inviting me to contribute.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Thursday, June 3, 2010
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