Thesis Opening 4/23 - 2-6pm

Videodrome 4/1 & Carolee Schneemann 4/7

MOCCA Spring Events

FameFame: VIDEODROME 2
April 1, 2006 at 9:00 p.m. $5 (Canadian)

Carolee Schneemann
April 7, 2006 at 8:00 p.m. $5 (Canadian)

The Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art kicks off our Spring Events series with two important innovators in the field of visual art. On April 1st Toronto media saboteurs FameFame present Videodrome 2. On Friday April 7th, MOCCA, in collaboration with Pleasure Dome and the Loop gallery collective present pioneering multi-media artist Carolee Schneemann in person.

For Videodrome 2, FameFame bring together some of the worlds best image and sound destroyers in a video clash like no other. This international beamer futurist throwdown promises to be a sensory overdose for even the most television-addled brain. Based on the structure of the Jamaican soundclash, rival crews drop a track which is followed up by the other team who must try and up the ante and outdo the previous presentation - just like in 8-Mile only done by nerds who watch too much t.v. MC Pinky Beckles of TV Carnage will whip the crowd into a frenzy, encouraging them to voice their responses to the video offerings, and the cheers and jeers of the audience will eventually decide the winner of the battle. The winner will be awarded the championship belt, a one-of-a-kind stainless steel trophy handcrafted by FameFame's Josh Avery. On Friday April 1st hometown heroes FameFame, winners of the vicious Videodrome battle held at MOCCA last summer, take on current champ V-Atak (who stole the title in November on his home turf in Paris), Electric Method (London), and Madame Chao (NYC).

It may be worth considering that none of these whippersnapper art punks would be doing what they're doing today, if not for the audacious, groundbreaking work by Carolee Schneemann that, during the 1960s and beyond, transformed the dynamics of the body and of installation and performance art. One of the most important and influential artists of the latter half of the 20th Century, Schneemann will present Disruptive Consciousness: a lecture, a unique, multimedia discussion on resistance and radicalization in contemporary art through a presentation of her own work. Using video and a sequence of slides she will examine the unpredictable directives of lived experience, the unconscious and the materials through which her installations, films and videos take form. Her motives for addressing new technologies, social issues and the latent cultural taboos surrounding sensuality will be discussed with the audience.

After spending most of her career in New York, Schneemann has maintained a part time studio in Montreal since the mid-1990s. Her career highlights are too numerous to mention here, however, solo exhibitions of Carolee Schneemann's work will be held at Presentation House in Vancouver this Spring and at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art in 2007.

All programs and activities at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art are supported by Toronto Culture, the Ontario Arts Council, BMO Financial Group, individual memberships and private donations.

Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art 952 Queen Street West Toronto, ON M6J1G8
Public Information: (416) 395-0067 Gallery Hours: Tuesday-Sunday 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. Pay What You Can
For media information contact Camilla Singh: (416) 395-7430 or csingh@toronto.ca

Hallwalls 3/30 and 3/31

Thurs. March 30 at 8 pm and 10 pm (2 screenings!)
PAUL CHAN presents THE TIN DRUM TRILOGY
The videos that comprise THE TIN DRUM TRILOGY are concerned with the consequences of the illegal war in Iraq. The trilogy features RE: THE_OPERATION based on a set of the artist's drawings that depict members of the George W. Bush administration as wounded soldiers in the war against terrorism; BAGHDAD IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER, a video essay of life in Baghdad before the American invasion and occupation; and NOW PROMISE NOW THREAT that uses Omaha, Nebraska as a site and subject from which to follow the often unexpected lines connecting people, religion, and politics in "red state" America.
Event co-sponsored by the Experimental TV Center and UB Dept. of Media Study programming committee.

Fri. March 31 at 8 pm and 10 pm (2 screenings!)
JEM COHEN presents CHAIN
As regional character disappears and corporate culture homogenizes our surroundings, it’s increasingly hard to tell where you are. In CHAIN, actual malls, theme parks, hotels and corporate centers worldwide are joined into a monolithic “superlandscape” that shapes and circumscribes the lives of two women. One is a businesswoman researching the international theme park industry for her home company. The other is a young drifter, illegally living and working on the fringes of a shopping mall.
Organized by Hallwalls & Squeaky Wheel; co-sponsored by the Experimental TV Center, UB’s Dept. of Media Studies Graduate Club and UB Dept. of Media Study programming committee.

For details, please visit www.hallwalls.org

AN EVENING OF NEW VIDEOS 3/27

Mon. March 27 at 6:30 pm
QUANTUM LEAPS
AN EVENING OF NEW VIDEOS
CURATOR ASTRIA SUPARAK IN PERSON

Center for the Arts 112
The University at Buffalo, North (Amherst) Campus
Admission is FREE

Curated by: Astria Suparak
Videos by: Daniel Barrow, Philippe Blanchard, Dearraindrop, Emily
Vey Duke and Cooper Battersby, Jim Finn, Caroline Koebel, J.
Macdonell, Marriage, Jim Munroe, Liz Rosenfeld, Seth Price, Andy
Puls.

Posters by: Celebrate People's History

This inspirational screening catalogues heroes, compresses history and hallucinates futures.

Details: www.astriasuparak.com/quantumleaps.htm

With cameos by: Annie Sprinkle, Ché Guevara, Liberace’s teen lover, ‘big-eyed’ style ghost painter Margaret Keane, the Berlin Wall, Quentin Crisp, yoga, Kathie Lee Gifford’s sweatshop labour, Harry and Jack Smith, the Battle of Seattle, Wayne Gretzky, Ho Chi Minh, Sun Ra, cosmonaut stamps, mob ties and Vegas retirements, Nelson Mandela, many more.

Sponsored by The Department of Media Study, The College of Arts and Sciences, and the Canadian-American Studies Committee.

Hallwalls 3/25

Sat. March 25 at 8 pm
HARP artist Stephen Vitiello in person
$7 general, $5 students/seniors, $4 members

Stephen Vitiello will be back at Hallwalls to present an evening of his sound and video work in the Hallwalls Cinema. his recent Hallwalls Artist in Residence project resulted in the original CD BuffaloBassDelay, compiled from sounds gathered in and around Buffalo’s famous grain elevators. Copies of the CD will be available for purchase. To hear a clip from the disk, click on:
http://www.hallwalls.org/media-arts-pages/media-arts-bbd.html

“Buffalo Bass Delay is haunted by the remembered sounds of 2005, today: the sounds of distant sirens and traffic on nearby Route 5, and the mournful heaving of passing locomotives. Then, amid occasional wisps of faraway conversation, the sallow tribal rhythms and low whistling of the Last Men carry us up the time tunnel into that vague Never (or Ever) that good music always inhabits.”
— Tony Conrad, June 2005

Matthew Shipp solo

Thursday March 23 • 8:00 p.m.
Matthew Shipp solo
Hallwalls 341 Delaware Ave. Buffalo
$12 general, $8 Hallwalls members, students and seniors
http://www.hallwalls.org/music.html

Matthew Shipp - piano

Visionary pianist/composer Matthew Shipp returns to Hallwalls in support of his luminous new solo piano recording One on Thirsty Ear records.

“The 12 tracks that make up One, Matthew Shipp's first solo piano outing since 2002's Songs on the Splasc(h) label, amount to a new kind of recital for the pianist. Two of his major influences on the instrument, Cecil Taylor and Mal Waldron, make their traces heard in terms of Shipp's architecture, but never do they become dominant. There is a kind of economy of scale that goes into these pieces that's refreshing for any solo piano outing. For starters, there are the elegant middle- and lower-middle-register chord voicings that make up the lion's share of "Arc," the opener. Shipp puts down a series of chords following in scale, and then extrapolates on them, shading their colors more sharp or more flat, a little bit at a time, never trying to arrive at a destination until one speaks out loudly enough for more detail. On "Patmos," one can hear the unhurried projection of scale in the single-note flourishes that stack up, allowing one set of t! ones to bleed into another, asserting not so much projection as a platform from which to hear what comes next and to allow that songlike voice to rise to the surface. "Gamma Ray" invokes both Thelonious Monk and Taylor in its jagged, rhythmic dexterity. The play of melody works against the grain here in the beginning, but it does make itself known before the pianist's own sense of space between chromatic statements becomes dominant. But Shipp is very keen on balance in these pieces, too; there is the constant rise of tension and its gradual release once a path of inquiry is found and decided upon. The drift in "Zero" is charted so that one of Shipp's most beautiful and realized melodies comes to the fore -- along with graceful melodic and harmonic articulations -- and stays there for the entire piece. One is a fully realized and poetic work by a mature pianist who should finally begin getting his due, not only as an improviser and a visionary but as a t! echnician as well.”

-Thom Jurek - www.allmusic.com

MFA Show - Hans Gindlesberger 3/25

Hans Gindlesberger's I'm in the wrong film is a body of work composed of a series of staged tableaus that interrogate the small town. Presented as a non-linear narrative, these photographic stills and moving images explore identity, memory, place, and the loss of belonging by probing the psychology of a transient character as he is inserted within a variety of constructed environments with which he must interact. This process references the theatre as well as silent film and places the otherwise realistic images at the threshold of a dreamlike space. The techniques employed in synthesizing the images are intentionally left ambiguous. While presenting themselves on the surface as truthful documents, each construction finds a way to falter and show its seams. This disruption of reality is an acknowledgement of the simulated space of the small town. Therefore, the actions of the character within this environment serve as a catalyst for the viewer to think about their engagement with the space around them.

Artist Website: www.iamhansg.com
On view 3/25 - 4/22
Opening Reception 3/25 7-9pm
http://www.carnegieartcenter.org

MFA Show - Soyeon Jung 3/25

Soyeon Jung's Memory of November is a multi-channel, three-dimensional video installation that explores a chronological development of memory in three stages. The artist investigates themes of affliction, acquiescence, and reconstruction as she reflects on her cultural background in Korea and its irreconcilable difference to life in America. Using iconic imagery from both cultures as visual clues, each video projection documents a specific cultural performance while attaching to it a metaphorical meaning. By interpreting these symbols the viewer engages in a process of recuperating memory and identity. This act opens up a space in which the artist’s personal memory becomes a conduit for reflection.

Artist Website: www.SoyeonJung.com

On View at the Carnegie Art Center 3/25 -4/22
Opening Reception 3/25 7-9pm
http://www.carnegieartcenter.org

Art School Confidential

http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony/artschoolconfidential/mediumteaser.html

Cober Scholarship - Deadline 3/10

Reminder -- Cober Scholarship Application Due 3/10
See 2/8/06 posting

FRANCES LEEMING at Vtape

In the Vtape Video Salon
FRANCES LEEMING

Genetic Admiration
DVD, 2005, 23:00

March 4 - April 13, 2006
Opening Saturday, March 4, 2006 1-5PM
Artist's talk Saturday March 4, 2:00PM

With her collage animation Genetic Admiration, Frances Leeming has given us a work of dark humour and rare visual pleasure. It is replete with images drawn from the high modernity of the 20th century: representations of the nuclear family, of "fun centres" such as fairgrounds and midways, of iconic Hollywood heartthrobs, and finally of science as the new god - or at least with god-like powers. Her technique - which is more Hannah Hoch and John Heartfield than Photoshop - never smoothes the seams of the cuts that allow her flattened figures and landscapes to move about. It is precisely these visible "cuts" that produce the suture effect permeating the work. It is here - in the inevitable and unhealed suture - that Leeming shows us the reversal of modernism's 20th century. In spite of all our faith in "progress" and "the possible", things may not be going in just one direction after all. The mirror is both a reflection and a pool. Having plunged into biological reproduction with the zeal of an assembly line manager, our species may well have invented our own credible ending.

But in spite of the serious content, Leeming's adept eye for detail, her mordant humour and the wealth of her material - drawn from old Life magazines, posters and books, and finally from the archives of the Canadian National Exhibition - propel Genetic Admiration into a provocative - and hilarious - critique of both Big Science and Big Ideas.

Frances Leeming's performance and film projects explore the relationship between gender, technology and consumerism. Her work has been presented and exhibited across Canada, the U.S., Britain and Poland and has been purchased by such institutions as the National Gallery of Canada, California Institute for the Arts and broadcast on PBS (US), Channel Four (UK), SBS (Australia) and the Women's Television Network (Canada). In 2005, Genetic Admiration was awarded the grand prize at the Images Festival in Toronto. She teaches in the Department of Film Studies, Queen's University, Kingston.

Vtape
401 Richmond St., #452
Toronto, ON M5V 3A8
416 351-1317
www.vtape.org