DREAMLANDS: EXPANDED
Sunday January 15, 7:30pm
OPTIPUS
“The Owl Flies at Twilight”
at Knockdown Center, 52-19 Flushing Ave, Maspeth, NY
From: Bradley Eros, “tomorrow at twilight”, 2010, collage on 35mm slide – Courtesy of the artist
For the 10th and final event of “Dreamlands: Expanded“, a series of expanded cinema events organized by Microscope in collaboration with the Whitney Museum of American Art as part of the exhibition “Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905-2016“, we are thrilled to present a new multi-projection and sound performance The Owl Flies at Twilight composed by the Optipus collective & orchestra in its largest configuration to date featuring 28 artists.
New York collective or “media laboratory” Optipus, led by Bradley Eros, hints at the historic demise of analog media and the wisdom resulting from this awareness in their new work titled “The Owl Flies at Twilight”, referencing G.W.F. Hegel’s famous quote.
Three distinct movements examine specific connections between vision and sound: Psychedelic, liquid light, and other complex color compositions paired with electronics; Figurative and photographic images coupled with strings; Minimal uses of pure colors, flickers, and gels accompanied by percussion elements. The full list of film and sound artists in this expanding and contracting collective will be announced closer to the date of the performance.
Projections in various formats by Bradley Eros, Lary Seven, Katherine Bauer, Rachael Guma, Genevieve H-K, Kenneth Zoran Curwood, Joel Schlemowitz, Tim Geraghty, Sarah Halpern, Simon Liu, Alison Nguyen, Lily Jue Sheng, Antonia Kuo, Gill Arno, Scott Kiernan, Shona Masarin & Andrew Hurst.
Sound organized by Mia Theodoratus (strings), Michael Evans (percussion), Victoria Keddie (electronics), with: Richard Sylvarnes, Gabriel Guma, Rachelle Rahme, Zach Layton, Laura Ortman, David Grollman, Kevin Shea, Jake Naussbaum, Rachael Guma.
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Optipus is a nomadic group of chameleon artists, cine-scientists in search of a laboratory, shape-shifting according to site-specific requirements. The group embraces the ephemeral cinema of unfixed forms and open composition. Optipus’s members emerge in myriad collaborations, producing works and events, soundtracks and invented instruments, video edits and film loops, and expanded cinema and immersive installations. Optipus has been previously seen at various venues including The Kitchen, Anthology Film Archives, Participant Inc., New York University, Microscope Gallery, Bobby Redd Project Space (The Church), Millennium Film Workshop and others.
General admission $15
Students & Members $10
Please note:
Knockdown Center is located within walking distance of Microscope Gallery and the Jefferson L train, and shuttle service is provided between the L subway stop and the Knockdown Center.
About “Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905-2016”
This fall, the Whitney Museum of American Art presents Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016, a landmark exhibition that focuses on the ways in which technology has created new forms of immersive experience using the moving image. Artists have dismantled and reassembled the conventions of cinema—screen, projection, darkness—to create new readings of space, optical form, and time. The exhibition will fill the Museum’s 18,000-square-foot Neil Bluhm Family Galleries on the fifth floor, as well as the adjacent Kaufman Gallery, and will include a substantial film program in the Susan and John Hess Family Theater, and a series of expanded cinema events organized by Microscope Gallery in Bushwick, Brooklyn, in collaboration with the Whitney. Organized by Chrissie Iles, the Whitney’s Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Curator.
About Knockdown Center
Knockdown Center is a 50,000 sq.ft. art and events space dedicated to unusual projects and collaborations. Featuring programming of diverse formats and media, Knockdown Center aims to create a radically cross-disciplinary environment.
Sketch for the visual score (“abstract” and “pure light” sections) of “The Owl Flies at Twilight” (Bradley Eros, 2017) – courtesy of the artist
Special Thanks to Rooftop Films
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Lead Underwriting Support Provided by the Robert D. Bielecki Foundation.
Generous Support provided by J.J. Kasper, Paul Jost, and Natasha Reatig.
This presentation is made possible in part with public funds from the New York State Council of the Arts’ Electronic Media & Film Presentation Funds grant program, administered by The ARTS Council of the Southern Finger Lakes.
Microscope Gallery Event Series is sponsored, in part, by the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, administered by Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC).
Additional Support provided by Knockdown Center and Negativland.
Sponsored by Colorlab and The Bodega. Official Media Partner: The Brooklyn Rail.
