Dreamlands: Expanded
October 31, 2016 – January 15, 2017
Gill Arno, Kenneth Zoran Curwood, Bradley Eros & Jeanne Liotta, Rachael Guma, Sarah Halpern, Barbara Hammer, Takahiko Iimura, Ken Jacobs, Malcolm Le Grice, Simon Liu, Optipus, Karolina Raczynski, Raha Raissnia, Joel Schlemowitz, Kurt Schwerdtfeger, Stan VanDerBeek & Joan Brigham, Alexia Welch, Jennifer West
From: Kurt Schwerdtfeger, “Reflektorische Farblichtspiele” (Reflecting Color-Light-Play), 1922 (shot by Rudolf Jüdes, 1966) – Courtesy of the Schwerdtfeger Estate
Microscope Gallery is pleased to announce Dreamlands: Expanded, a series of expanded cinema events organized in collaboration with the Whitney Museum of American Art as part of the exhibition “Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905-2016”. The ten event, two-and-a-half month long series complements and extends the scope of the exhibit, from the installation works on the museum’s fifth-floor and the film screening program in its third-floor theater, across the East River to include historical and contemporary performance works that collectively propose alternative ways to perceive, conceive, and consider the image in motion.
The works in the program – spanning 85 years and ranging from a colored shadow play created through a hand-built machine, to a study of complete darkness as experienced through the retinas and body, to the live disintegration of a photographic slide, to the 3D effect recreated by means of outdated technologies – address among others concerns the materiality and ephemerality of the filmic image and the cinematic apparatus, visual and sensory immersion, and a broadening of the concepts of screen, projection, audience, and medium.
Dreamlands: Expanded features long overdue re-stagings of the Bauhaus performance piece Reflektorische Farblichtspiele (Reflecting Color-Light-Play, 1922) by Kurt Schwerdtfeger presented for the first time in nearly 50 years, and of Steam Screens (1979) by Stan VanDerBeek and Joan Brigham, which debuted at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Among other pioneering works are Malcolm Le Grice’s Horror Film 1 (1973), Takahiko Iimura’s Circle and Square (1981), and Ken Jacobs’ Black Space (mid-1970s to present), performed by each of the three artists on separate evenings. For Subverted Horseplay (1994-97) Bradley Eros and Jeanne Liotta reunite to perform the final work of their decade long collaboration.
Premieres include Barbara Hammer’s Evidentiary Bodies (2016), Joel Schlemowitz’s Kannon, the Goddess of Mercy (2016), and New York collective Optipus’ The Owl Flies at Twilight (2017) accompanied by a full orchestra.
Los Angeles-based artist Jennifer West activates, along with audience members, a new iteration of her Filmstrip Flashlight Projections installation. And, younger generations of contemporary artists are represented in Slides & Mirrors Plays, a two-part evening of performances by Gill Arno, Kenneth Zoran Curwood, Rachael Guma, Sarah Halpern, Simon Liu, Raha Raissnia, Karolina Raczynski, and Alexia Welch.
For additional info and high res images please contact the gallery by email at info@microscopegallery.com or by phone at (347) 925-1433.
Whitney and Microscope Members can receive discounted tickets to each of the ten events of the series.
Locations:
All Dreamlands: Expanded events take place at Microscope Gallery, with the exception of Steam Screens by VanDerBeek & Brigham and The Owl Flies at Twilight by Optipus, which will both be presented at Knockdown Center in Maspeth, Queens.
Microscope Gallery, 1329 Willoughby Ave, #2B, Brooklyn, NY 11237
Nearest Subway: Jefferson Street L (Starr St. exit).
Knockdown Center, 52-19 Flushing Avenue, Maspeth, NY 11378 is within walking distance of Microscope Gallery. Shuttle service is also available from the Jefferson Street L subway to the Knockdown Center (info at: http://knockdown.info)
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 Microscope Gallery:
Microscope Gallery is dedicated to presenting the works of moving image, sound, performance and digital artists from the emerging to pioneers of their art forms through regular exhibitions and a weekly series of events. Since its founding in 2010 by co-directors Elle Burchill and Andrea Monti, the gallery has addressed what it perceives as an unnecessary divide between the white box setting of the gallery and black box of the screening/performance venue. Microscope Gallery is located in the Bushwick, Brooklyn NY.
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.
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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 Souther 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.
Media Partner: The Brooklyn Rail.
PROGRAM:
MONDAY OCTOBER 31, 7:30PM
MALCOLM LE GRICE
Principles of Cinematography and Horror Film 1
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SATURDAY NOVEMBER 5, 7:30PM
KEN JACOBS
Black Space
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FRIDAY NOVEMBER 11, 7:30PM
KURT SCHWERDTFEGER
Reflektorische Farblichtspiele (Reflecting Color-Light-Play)
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MONDAY NOVEMBER 14, 7:30PM
BARBARA HAMMER
Evidentiary Bodies
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FRIDAY NOVEMBER 18, 7:30PM
TAKAHIKO IIMURA: Circle and Square
JOEL SCHLEMOWITZ: Kannon, The Goddess of Mercy
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SUNDAY NOVEMBER 20, 7:30PM
STAN VANDERBEEK & JOAN BRIGHAM
Steam Screens
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SATURDAY DECEMBER 10, 6-9PM
JENNIFER WEST
Flashlight Filmstrip Projections
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SATURDAY DECEMBER 17, 7:30PM
BRADLEY EROS & JEANNE LIOTTA
Subverted Horseplay
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