Observational Videos

Tonite (Reprise) (2009, 13 MB, 3:16 min) By Eileen Maxson. Exhibited at video_dumbo 2009.

A Month of Sundays (2009, 65 MB, 4:54 min) Last , in my view, the best of Sebastian Hernandez DIY or Die series of documentaries, which we ve been delighted to be able to feature here in the past few weeks. I found them all well made, engaging and informative. This one I also found profoundly moving. We look forward to featuring more of Sebastian s work in the not too distant future.

subterranean homesick blues (1967-2005, 7.5MB, 1:37 min.) Clip from ‘No Direction Home’, a documentary by Martin Scorsese, 2005. Footage from ‘Don’t Look Back’ by D.A. Pennebaker, 1967. Song from the album ‘Bringing It All Back Home’, 1965.

Interior Footage with Canine (2009, 13 MB, 57 secs) Exquisite Lumière from the ever reliable, ever astonishing, Sam Renseiw at spacetwo : patalab.

BYE-BYE BLUE SKY (2009, 17 MB, 2:40 min) 09.11.01__ Good Bye Blue Sky remix of the 1982 film by Pink Floyd, in response to the 9.11 terrorist attacks, footage remixed includes video filmed from my Brooklyn rooftop on 9.11.01 raw and heavy handed, but is indicative of the outpouring of emotional art made in response to the attacks by multitudes of artists. By [dNASAb].

10365282 (2009, 1 MB, 14 sec) 10366629 (2009, 7 MB, 1:26 min) Here s the blurb: In a wilderness at the heart of Berlin a strange apparition has landed. Simon Faithfull’s Mobile Research Station no.1 is a curious hybrid – half hi-tech Antarctic Research Station / half rusty-broken-dumpster. Using a standard building-waste container as its basis, the station nevertheless forms a luxurious designer-pod provided for an eccentric set of researchers. Rather than researching the frozen wastes of Antarctica or the moons of Saturn, the invited artist/researchers have begun their investigation into the surrounding wilderness and urban zones of uncertainty that still lie at the centre of Berlin. There initial findings and questions can be found in this blog as and when they happen. I really liked Simon Faithfull s recent show at the BFI. He does something genuinely witty engaging with the kind of play-acted science * that seems to be so in vogue with artists at the moment. This project has similar premises but it doesn t resonate in the same way. Of all the work up on the site these two little movies by Tim Knowles detained me the longest although it s a shame they weren t made with more care (perhaps, though, there s a deluxe DVD edition for sale somewhere along the line..) They do look nice though. * It sounds entirely dismissive but it s not meant to be. Well, not entirely. If I had to enlarge I d say it was an attempt to enlist a kind of sympathetic magic whereby some of the presumed authenticity of science rubs off on the artists work. But of course because we re all ironists now we re all quite aware that there s a kind of Tati-ish, childlike going-through-the-motions-of-science actually going on ( ooh those artists!) presumably it s in this disjuncture that the art purportedly emerges. With Faithfull (and Knowles) the results at least are visually engaging and to an extent affecting if not particularly deep. OK. Fine. But just how many times round do we go before it becomes the most painful of clichés?

Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore (1999, 14 MB, 14:46 min.) Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore is a compilation of found footage from the 70s, 80s and 90s underground music in the U.K. By Mark Leckey, winner of the 2008 Turner Prize.