Nightingale Theater
1084 N. Milwaukee Ave.
Chicago,IL
www.nightingaletheatre.org
December 6th, 7pm
Curators: Sasha Samochina, Danielle Kramer
Contact:
Address: 2539 W. Altgeld, #3 East / Chicago, IL 60647
Phone: 253-279-3593 (sasha); 330-354-1454 (danielle)
Email: cloudshasha@gmail.com; dkramer1@gmail.com
Basic Info:
Title: Youthful Perspectives: Obsessions, Obstacles, and Growing Up Pop
Description:
This collection of work explores the experience of growing up engulfed in television and music culture. The imprint is sometimes subliminal, blurring the boundaries of reality in our memories and stories. We identify, communicate, and express with bits of digested media. Advertisements that our childhood sponge-like minds have absorbed float in and out as we daydream. Many consciously collect in an attempt to recreate these memories, feeding the longing of nostalgia fed by years of media culture. We chose these pieces for their exploration into these media memories, examining how they shape our ideas and identities, helping us discover who we are, and sometimes who we are not.
Identity Crisis (1990, 3:00, DVD) -- Mindy Faber
Seven-year-old Kendra plays dress-up to act out ten stereotypical female personas introduced by simple names handwritten on title cards. Perpetuated through movies, television and music, labels like Southern Bell, Smart Lady, and Movie Star are easily assumed by Kendra at such an early age. The outtakes quickly reveal her true complexity beyond these cookie-cutter identities as she rebels against performing and being primped for these conventional roles.
Ballet Suit (2006, 3:11, DVD) -- Sasha Samochina
Sasha Samochina revisits her trunk of childhood memories of ballet, birthday parties and pop star admiration.
9 Minutes of Kaunaus (2007, 6:30, DVD) -- Dani Leventhal
Dani Leventhal chats with young Domas Darguzs in a Lithuanian synagogue as he shares amazing tales of what he is learning in school. Stories of his brother serving as an Israeli soldier become infused with fantastic encounters as his imagination blurs the boundaries of fiction and reality.
Transitional Objects (2000, 19:00, DVD) Jennifer Montgomery
"Begun as a consideration of the upgrading from manual to digital film editing techniques, Transitional Objects explores the anxiety and loss inevitable in such a transition while also suggesting the consequences of other life transitions. The video takes its title from D.W. Winnicott's theory of children's use of transitional objects to negotiate the gaps between internal reality and the shared reality of people and things."
-Carl Bogner, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Target (1999, 8:30, DVD) -- Animal Charm
A man with a fully bandaged face drives aimlessly through a shopping center parking lot while Carol King plays a sad song on the radio. Recycled imagery of television advertisements, family portraits and animal footage switch channels in a wandering daydream as this mysterious movie scene drives on without a Target.
Lullaby (1999, 18:00, DVD) -- Jennifer Reeder
“Driven to the beat of Madonna's song Lucky Star, modified from its original pop rhythm to a lethargically slow pace, Lullaby explores the hopes and dreams of a teenage Jennifer Reeder as she develops into adulthood. Using actual diary entries from her teenage journal, intermixed with excerpts from the writings of Judy Blume - staple reading for most young girls coming of age in the early 1980s to the present - the artist places her youthful desires and inspirations in text, as well as visual, form on the screen.”
-- John D. Spiak
A Love Story Part 1 & 2 (3:20, DVD) -- Kali Heitholt
Screen printed images of Bob Dylan flash across the screen to recreate the nostalgia of a memory through repetitious excerpts of song.
Light is Waiting (2007, 11:00, DVD) -- Michael Robinson
“A very special episode of television's Full House devours itself from the inside out, excavating a hypnotic nightmare of a culture lost at sea. Tropes of video art and family entertainment face off in a luminous orgy neither can survive.”
--Michael Robinson
Formats Screened: DVD
Projection Staff: Christy LeMaster
Atmosphere: casual
Speakers: Sasha Samochina & Danielle Kramer
Introduction: Sasha Samochina & Danielle Kramer
Program Notes: Provided by Curators
Friday, November 28, 2008
Sunrise
I was granted a window seat for once, and all the times I have spent between two large bodies in quiet discomfort was worth the break through the clouds as we rose above the thick blanket. Below was gray and gloom, but what a gift it was for those beyond the Cumulus ground. The moment we broke through the clouds, the sun snapped from the horizon with bands of white, yellow and blue light a bursting ball of proud yellow fire. This moment was more than a scene, it was an action in time produced by the movement of the earth around the sun and us around the earth. It lasted but a few seconds, but it filled me and I sat with my head against the window for a while, watching the white cotton candy stand surprisingly still below us. Holes began to break to reveal the patchwork of geometric farmland below. A dirty gust of gray air moved in to soil the view of the yellow morning sun until we were enveloped with a layer of Nimbostratus and the moment was done.
I wonder who else had noticed?
I wonder who else had noticed?
Sunday, November 23, 2008
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