MAKING LIGHT OF IT

The 2010 incarnation of the Brakhage Symposium at Colorado University, now in its sixth year, gets underway next weekend (March 12-14), in an expanded three-day format.  Last year’s symposium proved to be a marvelous experience, the atmosphere cultivated in the beautiful visual arts complex and the passion of those participating made for an entirely unique adventure, and this year promises to hold an even greater wealth of discovery.  I hope to be able to write something of substance about the proceedings post-symposium (though how in-depth it will potentially be unfortunately still remains up in the air), nevertheless all those with the opportunity to attend are highly encouraged to do so (hit that open road…).  The schedule is as follows:

"The Stan Brakhage Symposium, already a tradition in the not very traditional world of avant-garde filmmaking, will again be hosted this year by the University of Colorado at Boulder. In a weekend dedicated to the exploration of new ideas in cinema art, guest curator Ed Halter will explore the role of repetition/reuse/and the remake in contemporary artists’ works, and CU faculty professors Christina Battle and Jennifer Peterson will investigate the relationship of the amateur and the Avant-Garde.  Presenters will include Ed Halter, art historian David Joselit, Andy Lampert, Annette Michelson, Sylvia Schedelbauer, Phil Solomon, and Elisabeth Subrin.
 

In an extension of one of Brakhage’s particular interests, there will also be a program of home movies from the collection of the Academy Film Archive presented by Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences archivist Lynne Kirste, as well as a number of short-works programs (films, videos, and performances)."

PART I: Repetition/Remaking/Reuse

PART II: The Amateur and the Avant-Garde

Save the date!  Phil Solomon’s six-channel “Sistine Chapel for the American Dream”, American Falls, will be open to the public from April 10, 2010 through July 18, 2010 at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington D.C, with an opening reception to be held a few days earlier on the 6th of April.

The American Falls project, which initially earned Solomon the 2007 Thatcher Hoffman Smith Creativity in Motion Award, is described by its maker as  “…ultimately one of great hope, stemming from a lifelong love for this American experiment of ours that seemed so vivid to me during my (television-infused) childhood; but it is also necessitated by my deepest concern for its present and future directions”.

Finding inspiration in sources as varied as Frederick Church to Diego Rivera to an episode of Star Trek, Solomon applies his lyrically splendent chemical mastery to images both private and public from the collective cultural wellspring to create a solemn trek through past, present and future.

For those with the means to attend it is not to be missed at all costs.  For those perhaps a little less fortunate, you can have the briefest of (limited) glimpses into what the experience has to offer with this video taken from an “abbreviated” presentation at the Untitled ArtSpace that took place from September through November of 2008...

*UPDATE*: Please keep the following message from Phil in mind while watching the aforementioned video below:

"The Untitled Gallery clip is a bit compromised, as they could not get me matching projectors (!) and then would not replace the file once I had color corrected the mismatch, so I learned some lessons there. This was just the first, rather broad sketch, as I wanted to say thank you to the good folks ... Leer másin Oklahoma City who partially funded The Falls with the THS Award. I will post a photo of the Corcoran Rotunda, where there WILL be 6 excellent matching projectors and installed 7.1 sound. As I mentioned, it will run exactly concurrent with a major Muybridge exhibition, a fortuitous confluence of events and worth waiting the 10 years since this project was first conceived---first inspired by the great painting of Niagara Falls by Frederick Church that sits right outside the Rotunda."

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=596868214247

http://musings.philsolomon.com/?p=228

http://musings.philsolomon.com/?p=229

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Imagine had a few of the silver bars used to fund the machines of war and oppression found their way into the hands of a prophetic artist who melted them down to create a haunting requiem of liquid shadows…

Once familiar images suddenly coagulate before our eyes, invoked from the dark pools of the unconscious, only to evanesce a brief moment later.  A cognizance that does not collide, but rather shifts fluidly through a perilous space…

These faces etched into the gloomy unknown, reborn from the silver halide ashes…

The figures of myth rise once again, a hymn for protection on the eve of destruction…

A profound darkness, a pitch-black night somewhere between glimpses of a fading paradise and an uncertain apocalypse, deeply melancholic, yet strangely reassuring, a potent mix of ethereal viscosity…

A textbook will open, the words will be read, and they will ring false…

A canister will open, this film will be projected, and it will ring true…

 The prophetic artist is Phil Solomon, who has mastered the chemical and optical tools of cinema, enabling him to express his creativity with a lyricality familiar of many of the greatest of artists, yet entirely and uniquely his own...

He has generously made this film, Twilight Psalm III: Night of the Meek, available through his website, and despite the limitations inherent in the online presentation of singular works of celluloid and the profound darkness of the piece, the LIGHT of his consummate artistry shines through…

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http://musings.philsolomon.com/?p=212

The following is video shot by Phil Solomon at a post-screening discussion that took place at one of Brakhage's weekly 'salons' on his film Murder Psalm.  I am not going to attempt try and elaborate much here, as Solomon prefaces the video with much greater insight than I could ever hope to, other than to reiterate how valuable I think these videos are, and how grateful I am (as I'm sure many are) to Solomon for taking the time to share them.

Boy’s Best Friend (2002, Cécile Fontaine)

The Young Prince (2007, R. Bruce Elder)

No. 5 (1998, Olivier Fouchard)

Das Goldene Tor (1992, Jurgen Reble)

Aaeon (1968-70, Al Razutis)

Water Spell (2007, Sandy Ding)

Elephants’ Test (2005, Albert Alcoz)

Removed (1999, Naomi Uman)

Light Work Mood Disorder (2007, Jennifer Reeves)