TateShots is an excellent series of short videos, produced by the Tate, with a focus on modern and contemporary art.
Recently in experimental film/ video Category
"Présences"
by Floriane deLassee
now showing at Galerie Philippe Chaume in Paris, 8 April 2011 to 4th June 2011
Visit the artist's website and Vimeo to see more.
The hilarious 'Sixteen Studies from Vegetable Locomotion' by Hollis Frampton and Marion Faller, 1975
Carrot ejaculating
Savoy Cabbage Flying
More here
Research:
Sam Taylor Wood, Still Life (video stills), 2001
In the arts, vanitas is a type of
symbolic work of art especially associated with Northern European still life in
Flanders and the Netherlands in the 16th and 17th centuries
though also common in other places and periods. The word is Latin, meaning "emptiness"
and loosely translated corresponds to the meaninglessness of earthly life and
the transient nature of Vanity. Common vanitas symbols include skulls, which
are a reminder of the certainty of death; rotten fruit, which symbolizes decay
like ageing; bubbles, which symbolize the brevity of life and suddenness of
death; smoke, watches, and hourglasses, which symbolize the brevity of life;
and musical instruments, which symbolize brevity and the ephemeral nature of
life. Sam Taylor Wood's work (Still Life, Video Stills, 2001) is another step in this
direction: the image, beautiful as ever in Taylor-Wood's universe, decomposes
itself. By the end, nothing is left but a grey amorphous mass.On closer
inspection, one thing distinguishes this picture from its predecessors. The
ball-point pen. A cheap, contemporary object that doesn't decay.
Massive Attack commissioned
seven low-budget videos by both established names and those with little
experience of directing. "We are always keen not to be in the videos, and not
to compromise the idea by having to make an appearance," says Del Naja. "But on
the whole it has been a case of carte blanche with the directors, to the extent
where we said: 'We will give you the stems of the tracks and you can use
whichever components you want, loop some parts, take the vocals out...' We have
always been totally unprecious."
The film looks at human rights with a sonic,
scientific slant; imagine sitting inside a perfectly silent space - a room so
quiet you can actually hear your own nervous system functioning. Now, imagine
the opposite - a dissonant, freezing cold concrete chamber with extremely loud
music blaring for hours on end. These two extremes come together in Adam
Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin's new film for Massive Attack's "Saturday Comes
Slow".
The film
was shot in the anechoic chamber at Cambridge University (designed to create
total silence) and featuring former Guantanamo Bay detainee, Ruhal Ahmed. The
film is a reflection on Ahmed's experiences whilst in detention, particularly
how he was interogated using high volume music, and about the physical effect of sound on the human body.
New York Photo Festival 2010: videos on Vimeo
Shirin
Neshat - Film Still from Debut Feature Film, Women Without Men, 2009
Shirin is known primarily for her photography
and video work exploring the complex historical, psychological, and
ever-evolving social and political positions of women in the Islamic world. Previous photographic work includes the
depiction of Iranian women bearing arms and with Persian calligraphy written on
their faces and bodies. After years working in fine art photography and video,
Shirin had the chance to direct her first feature, an adaptation of a
controversial Persian novella by Shahrnush Parsipur set during the 1953
CIA-backed coup that reinstalled the Shah of Iran. The story recounts the lives
of five women set against this socio-political backdrop. Women without Men
opens in the UK in May
Spacy, 1981,
Experimental Film by Takashi Ito
This totally compelling experimental film Spacy, 1981 was introduced to me by a university classmate (thanks Sam). For further info on Ito, see filmography here and continue reading here:
Continue reading Takashi Ito: Spacy 1981.
