Friday September 26, 7.30pm
CYCLOPEAN 3D: Life With A Beautiful Woman
& other works by Ken Jacobs
admission $6 – artist in person
Still from CYCLOPEAN 3D: Life With A Beautiful Woman (2012, Ken Jacobs) © 2012 courtesy of the artist
In connection with our current exhibition Slide Slide Slide, we are very pleased to present an evening of works by Ken Jacobs including the recent 47-minute video CYCLOPEAN 3D: Life With A Beautiful Woman, based entirely on stereoscopic slides. In this work, Jacobs reanimates single images from pairs of photographs of family and friends, from as early as the 1960s, as seen through the eye of a cyclops, creating a photo album that carries the 3D illusion of reliving past moments. Additional “cyclopean-like” short videos by Jacobs will be part of the program including Jonas Mekas in Kodachrome Days, Bob Fleischner Dying, and The Day Was A Scorcher.
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Ken Jacobs was born in Brooklyn, NY in 1933. He studied painting with Hans Hofmann in the mid-fifties and also began making films at that time. Jacobs created and directed The Millennium Film Workshop, N.Y.C. in 1966; started the Department of Cinema at S.U.N.Y. at Binghamton in 1969; and served as Professor of Cinema (1974-2000), Distinguished Professor of Cinema (2000) and Distinguished Prof. of Cinema Emeritus from 2002 to present. Jacobs’ films and videos have shown extensively in the US and abroad including recently at The Whitney Museum, NY; Museum of Moving Image, Queens, NY; Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden; Institute Of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia; Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy; Berlin Film Festival, Berlin, Germany; Cinemathèque Francaise, Paris, France among many others. Jacobs has received numerous awards and grants including a J.S. Guggenheim Fellowship, Rockefeller Foundation Special Grant, Creative Capital Grant among others. His film “Tom, Tom, The Piper’s Son” was named to the National Film Registry, in 2007. Jacobs lives and works in New York City.
CYCLOPEAN 3D: Life With A Beautiful Woman
video, color, silent, 2012, 47 minutes
3D with no spectacles but a lot of blinking instead (not for people sensitive to flicker), projected as 2D
Technical assistance: Nisi Jacobs, Antoine Catala, Jason Drakeford
Animations of home stereo-photos from the Sixties on. “Cyclopean” refers to the one-eyed Cyclops, because this 3D, something normally intended exclusively for two eyes, can also be seen by a single eye. Flo stars, friends appear in the Kodachrome past. Images of Nisi and Aza growing up demarcate time. (Ken Jacobs)
Short videos:
Jonas Mekas In Kodachrome Days
2009, 3:22 min, color, silent, HD video
Ken Jacobs writes, “Jonas remains most famous for not acting famous. Here he can be seen away from film audiences, dawdling in the cosmos while history happens elsewhere (unless we are mistaken, and the most meaningful and revealing moments are the moments at ease).” Assisted by Erik Nelson.
Bob Fleischner Dying
2009, 2:42 min, color, silent, HD video
Ken Jacobs describes Bob Fleischner Dying: “Bob allows his sick and fading image to be caught in stereo photography. A man of mystery, so banal in some ways, so unexpectedly ‘on’ when the situation demanded. The cameraman for Blonde Cobra and much beloved by the next generation of NY film-makers.” Assisted by Erik Nelson.
The Day Was A Scorcher
2009, 7:47 min, color, silent, HD video
The Day Was A Scorcher pictures movie-star Flo, Nisi the thoughtful young girl, and Aza old enough to trudge with the rest of us but still expecting to be pushed around on wheels, in sun-drenched Rome in the 1970s. A perfect day with nothing happening.” Assisted by Erik Nelson.
WARNING: These works feature throbbing light, and should not be viewed by individuals with a history of epilepsy or seizure disorders.
