Of course, when I finally remember to post something to the This Week in Avant-Garde list I accidentally post here as well!
So to clarify this is in Chicago. Best to all, pf On 3/11/13 4:12 PM, "Patrick Friel" <[email protected]> wrote: > > The Nightingale and White Light Cinema Present > > > > Unlimited Subjectivity: The Written and Sung Work of Duke and Battersby > Screening and Book Release > With Emily Vey Duke and Cooper Battersby in Person! > > Tuesday, March 19 7:00pm > At the Nightingale (1084 N. Milwaukee Ave.) > > > Copies of Mike Hoolboom¹s (Ed.) new book, "The Beauty is Relentless: The Short > Movies of Emily Vey Duke and Cooper Battersby," will be available for > purchase. > > > > The Nightingale and White Light Cinema are please to welcome Canadian artists > and video makers Emily Vey Duke and Cooper Battersby to present a > mini-retrospective of their videos, including two Chicago premieres, and to > continue the launch of a new publication on their work. Many of Duke and > Battersby¹s videos include original songs, sung by Duke, and tonight¹s program > will feature Duke singing a number of these songs live in accompaniment to the > videos. > > > ³The literary post-punk short movies of Emily Vey Duke and Cooper Battersby > have been tearing up the festival/gallery circuit for the past fifteen years > with their blend of bedroom pop, perverse animations and hopes for fame.² > (Mike Hoolboom) > > "Often working with the disconnects between human and animal - and their urge > to reconcile the sterile mechanics of our world versus the intuitive > viscerality we keep buried within - their dark sense of humour has yielded a > slate of bizarre taxidermies, installations, videos and sculpture, all tinged > with a gutsy, mystical longing that's sweet, sinister, hilarious and > disturbing all at once." (Murray Whyte, Toronto Star) > > > > > Program Details: > > Bad Ideas for Paradise (2001, 20 min) > Steve Reinke on Bad Ideas for Paradise: "There is no such thing as > self-esteem. Self-esteem as a construct is illogical and contradictory, so its > frequent deployment as the lynch-pin of New Age discourse seems to me > satisfyingly appropriate. I don't trust anyone who doesn¹t have frequent bouts > of self-loathing. There is something truly monstrous about the self-righteous. > Eating a well-balanced diet is a horrible act of aggression. Whenever I hear > the word "culture" I think of bacteria mutating under an ultraviolet light and > I'm happy again for a while. Within the petri dish: unfettered egoless desire, > the proliferation of new possibilities ideas made flesh, uncaring and finally > airborne. Empathy is a tool for making the cruelty more precise. Beauty is > independent of taste; the sublime only works for suckers. Whenever I laugh I > feel guilty." Bad Ideas for Paradise is a 20-minute episodic videotape. Funny, > touching and ambitious in scope, Bad Ideas continues to deal with many of the > themes addressed in Duke and Battersby's earlier works: addiction, > spirituality, identity, relationship dynamics and the ongoing quest for joy. > > Perfect Nature World (2002, 4 min) - with live singing > Perfect Nature World is a short single-channel animation. The genesis for the > work was Emily Duke's song of the same name, which describes the feelings of > longing and inadequacy we experience when faced with the exquisite > indifference of the natural world. The song was beautifully illustrated on a > twenty foot scroll of butter-coloured paper by Shary Boyle and then animated > by Cooper Battersby. > > Songs of Praise for the Heart Beyond Cure (2006, 15 min) > Songs of Praise for the Heart Beyond Cure marks Emily Vey Duke and Cooper > Battersby¹s return to the episodic structure of their earlier works Rapt and > Happy, Being Fucked Up and Bad Ideas for Paradise. As with earlier works, > Songs of Praise takes on difficult, often painful subject matter. Themes of > addiction, violence, the destruction of the natural world and the agonies of > adolescence are woven through the work, but as Sarah Milroy writes for the > Globe and Mail, the work is "anything but depressing... [it is founded in] a > sense of wonder at the endearing weirdness of life and all the vulnerable, > furry little creatures immersed in it (especially us)." > > Beauty Plus Pity (2008, 14 min) > Beauty Plus Pity sets a colourful single-channel video within a lush viewing > environment populated by costumed taxidermic animals. Presented in seven > parts, the video considers the potential for goodness amidst the troubled > relations between God, humanity, animals, parents and children. While an > animated cast of animal ³spirit guides² quote Philip Larkin¹s poem, This Be > the Verse, and implore us to ³get out as early as you can² from life and our > parents¹ grasp, a hunter dreams of a zoo where he might lie next to > tranquilized animals calmed of their savagery. A senile and unstable God > stumbles, forgets to take his medication, and turns frost into diamonds. > Beauty Plus Pity contemplates the shame and beauty of existence; it is part > apologia, part call to arms. > > The Beauty Is Relentless (2010, 4 min) - with live singing > A diary of incidental images: a bedazzled cat in a deciduous wood; a dead or > sleeping woman; a scarred arm; some whisky in a tumbler; a song that makes > promises its singer cannot keep. Commissioned by Mercer Union's Flipworks > project, all footage was shot on a Flip Camera. > > Here is Everything (2013, 15 min) - with live singing > Here Is Everything presents itself as a message from The Future, as narrated > by a cat and a rabbit, spirit guides who explain that they¹ve decided to speak > to us via a contemporary art video because they understand this to be our > highest form of communication. Their cheeky introduction, however, belies the > complex set of ideas that fill the remainder of the film. Death, God, and > attaining and maintaining a state of Grace are among the thematic strokes > winding their way through the piece, rapturously illustrated with animation, > still and video imagery. > > > > > > About: > Cooper Battersby (b. 1971, Penticton British Columbia, Canada) and Emily Vey > Duke (b. 1972, Halifax Nova Scotia, Canada) have been working collaboratively > since 1994. They work in printed matter, installation, curation and sound, but > their primary practice is the production of single-channel video. Their work > has been exhibited in galleries and at festivals in North and South America > and throughout Europe, including the Walker Center (Minneapolis), The Banff > Centre (Banff), The Vancouver Art Gallery (Vancouver), YYZ (Toronto), The New > York Video Festival (NYC), The European Media Arts Festival (Osnabruck), > Impakt (Utrecht) and The Images Festival (Toronto). Their tape Being Fucked Up > (2000) has been awarded prizes from film festivals in Switzerland, Germany and > the USA. Bad Ideas for Paradise (2002) was purchased for broadcast by the > Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and for the libraries at Harvard and > Princeton, and has won prizes from the NYExpo (NYC) and the Onion City > festival (Chicago). I am a Conjuror (2004) has received prizes from the Ann > Arbor Film Festival and the Onion City Festival. > > Emily Vey Duke received her BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and > Design, and completed her Masters at the University of Illinois at Chicago. > She then worked for a year as Artistic Director at the Khyber Centre for the > Arts in Halifax, NS. > > Cooper Battersby received his diploma in computer programming at Okanagan > College, and completed his Masters at the University of Illinois at Chicago. > He was the recipient of a Canada Council Production Grant in 2001. Duke and > Battersby are currently teaching at Syracuse University in Central New York. > > > dukeandbattersby.com > whitelightcinema.com > nightingaletheatre.org > > > $7-10 Suggested Donation > > > > > _______________________________________________ FrameWorks mailing list > [email protected] > https://mailman-mail5.webfaction.com/listinfo/frameworks
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