downstreetart logoVIDEO LOUNGE : : PROGRAM THREE

tear stained letter

Video Music
August 27 - September 23, 2009
Curated by Lana Z Caplan


A twist on music videos, these works all use music to drive their imagery, subverting the original intention of the music, or of the experience of listening.


Video works included in this program  (total running time 25 minutes)
                  
Track Suit Tranny, Goatsilk, 2007, 05;02
A nod to white R&B, questioning stereotypes, expectations and clichés in a heartfelt rendition of “Cry me a River”.

G-Ma, Katrine Burkitt, 2007, 4:06.
 "This music video is an amalgamation of my dreams of becoming a rap star, my projections of what I could be like as an elderly woman, my struggle to come to grips with performance art, and my memories of coming of age on Cape Cod. Basically, the classic granny rap with a small town twist."

Rock Me Amadeus by Falco via Kardinal by Otto Muehl (English version), Ben Russell, 2009, 3:39
A closely hewn remake of the first half of Viennese Actionist (and convicted sex offender) Otto Muehl's 1967 film Kardinal with the following minor substitutions: the original woman is played by the artist, the original artist is played by a woman wearing a powdered wig, and the film is presented as a Karaoke sing-a-long to one of Otto Muehl's more effete 80's popstar countrymen.

Tear Stained Letter (from the series Refrain), Lana Z Caplan, 2008, 3;38
“Refrain, is a series of several music videos for songs from the 20's to the present, united by the theme of heartbreak and lost love, based on the early music video genre and "The Break-up Album".   I use myself in the videos, lip-syncing, acting, and embodying the character.  By appropriating these songs, I am exploring the boundaries between desire and desperation, strength and weakness and the spectrum from individuality to dependence within relationships, while also commenting on our present culture, one that often adopts music and film personalities as icons, or feel that they are known by the nature of their presence on screen or on record.  This sense of knowing or feeling close to a “voice”, increases the discomfort when the image does not match our expectation.”

Be the Boy, Suara Welitoff, 5;35
Among other things, Welitoff makes videos of her friends, which she directs and shoots. These are intimate portraits of characters whose fleeting presence, absent of completed narrative, seeks to reveal more about the complexities of people.

Get Cannibal, Rich Remsberg, 2009, 3;07
Get Cannibal is a feel-good archival dance video with whimsical and ironic editing, which makes a poignant statement when re-viewed in the context of current affairs.


Artist Biographies and Contact Information:

Katrine Burkitt is a recent graduate of the SIM department (Studio for Interrelated Media) at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston. With approaches ranging from the music video to the abstract narrative, her work is rooted in personal documentary and often uses humor on many different levels. Katrine is originally from Cape Cod but is currently living and working in Melbourne, Australia.

Goatsilk, a collaborative art duo comprised of Ben Bloch and Caroline Peters, was formed in 2002 as an experimental gallery space on the outskirts of Missoula, Montana, creating projects such as The ebay Show, Fill:Full, and The Bowhead Project.  Goatsilk now engages the Internet as a site of continual metamorphosis, as an instrument, and as an artwork in and of itself.  Currently, Bloch teaches new genre arts at Whitman College in Washington, and Peters teaches contemporary theory and directs the art gallery at Colorado State University-Pueblo. www.goatsilk.com

Lana Z Caplan makes films/videos, photos and installations which explore relationships between people; lovers and ex-lovers, citizens and their government, fathers and daughters, immigrants and their in-laws, the artist and their subject, and the relationship to oneself.  Her work has been screened and shown in many countries including at MadCat Women’s International Film Festival, San Francisco, CA; Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City; Gallery NAGA, Boston, MA.  Most recently Caplan has been working on a new film in conjunction with residency support from Wexner Center for the Arts.  Caplan also teaches at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, MA.  www.lanazcaplan.com

Rich Remsberg is an archival footage researcher and filmmaker. His films have screened at Slamdance, the Walker Arts Center, and the Bowery Ballroom, and he regularly collaborates with the electronic music duo, The Books. He lives in North Adams.  www.atlasfilms.org

Ben Russell is an itinerant media artist and curator whose films and performances have been presented in spaces ranging from 14th Century Belgian monasteries to 17th Century East India Trading Co. buildings, police station basements to outdoor punk squats, Japanese cinematheques to Parisian storefronts, and solo screenings at the Rotterdam Film Festival and the Museum of Modern Art.  A 2008 Guggenheim award recipient, Ben began the Magic Lantern screening series in Providence, Rhode Island, and he currently teaches at the University of Illinois at Chicago.  www.dimeshow.com

Suara Welitoff makes videos as reflections on moments; elongated fragments of action, extended close-ups, acute attention, slowed down and sometimes reversing.  Her work has been exhibited in and is in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MIT List Visual Arts Center, NGBK, Berlin, CCC Strozina in Florence, the Boston ICA, Participant Inc., and Threadwaxing Space in NYC, among others.  She is currently planning a project for the Barbara Krakow Gallery in Boston.

++

 


VIDEO LOUNGE

4 programs of video works curated by Lana Z Caplan
June 25 - October 18, 2009

33 Main Street
North Adams, MA
413.664.8718
Hours: Wed.-Sat. 10-6, Sun. 11-4

Opening receptions and new programs begin on the last thursday of each month:
June 25, July 30, Aug 27, Sept 24, receptions from 6-9pm

map and more informaiton here: http://www.downstreetart.org/

Participating Artists include:

Natalie Bookchin
Katrine Burkitt
Lana Z Caplan
Goatsilk
Michelle Handelman
Julianna Schley
Saul Levine
Liz Nofziger
Mike Olenick
Marisa Olson
Rich Remsberg
Adie Russell
Ben Russell
Anabel Vazquez
Suara Welitoff

press on the video lounge

Downstreet Art is a program of the MCLA Berkshire Cultural Resource Center.
This summer and fall, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts is partnering with MassMOCA, The Northern Berkshire Community Coaliton and Scarafoni Reality to highlight an abundance of art in North Adams' DownStreet Art 2009.

MCLA logo
http://www.mcla.edu/
Gallery 51