Collection Overview
Curator's Statement
Film/Video Curator Dean Otto
Recycled
the past history of film for their artwork–both its images and
ephemera–artists
contexts, even new forms by which we can see cinema. Recycling images from
found footage and classic films or crafting new objects and conditions under
which the prints are screened, these artists infuse new life into the work.
her most recent video installations
through August 13 in the MCAD gallery),
violent images from westerns, chosen primarily from films dating from the 1940s
to 1980. Projected on two connected screens placed in a corner of the room, the
violent sections of these movies play out on unsynchronized video loops. Taken
together, these film clips represent the different cultural experiences of
Mexican-Americans, Native Americans, and European settlers comprising the
loaded history of the West. Kosmalski’s
selection of images in these film pieces is reminiscent of the clips shows of
Workman; Show/Down’s sense of
flow and movement, in particular, is masterful—shots ring out from
several men on horseback, men fall from cliffs, others shoot from close range.
the cleverest and most lauded uses of found footage of late,
Miller changes the narrative of a discarded black-and-white Mexican
medical melodrama by inserting a set of English subtitles that ignore the
original Spanish-language dialogue in a playful act of
multilayered approach satirizes the division between narrative and experimental
film. The resulting work is much like the
film by Doo
Kwang
Gee and René
Vienet,
(La Dialectique
peut-ell
casser
des briques?
(1973), in which a
politically theoretical discussion plays out over the dubbed soundtrack of a
found kung-fu film. Miller’s approach (like Gee’s and
Vienet’s)
changes the original intent, but it also enlivens an otherwise inert drama.
on the discarded footage from film trailers for Star Wars and Spies
and old film reels, designer
materials of cinema into functional furniture. Oates creates wine racks and tables
from disused metal film reels; she cuts and stretches the frames of movie
trailers, suspending them beneath glass to make tables. Though film purists may
be shocked at this use of film, it’s important to remember that she has
used the most expendable material from the films in her constructions.
Minnesota Film Arts programmer
has undertaken a major recycling mission of his own, liberating and repurposing
hundreds of 16mm films that were set to be discarded by the University
of Minnesota. When
Sekuler was later joined by programmer
the two hosted many nights of screenings for a series called
mined from this collection, and in the process reanimated a group of films that
had languished without context and care before the two unearthed them.
approaches to reclaiming images and materials remind me of the words of the
announcer in Kosmalski’s
short video, Circle (2006). After
praising the equestrian skills of a Native American man on the rodeo circuit,
announcer encourages the ideals of “recognizing the past and adapting to
the present.” The work of each of these artists embodies just those
values.
Center. He has been active in
film and video programming for 22 years, and recently initiated the annual
after serving as the programmer for the
Festival for several years for Minnesota
Film Arts.
Related Links
Collection
Collection Classification
access + ENGAGE, Film, Fine Craft , Mixed Media, Unclassified