SALEM RE-REMEMBERED

ANALOG IMPORTATIONS

TWO SISTERS

FURRY DIVINATION

MASS ART FILM SOCIETY (VIDEO SCREENING)

MASS COLLEGE OF ART & DESIGN–BOSTON,MA - OCTOBER 29TH 2008
TITLE: “TORSTEN ZENAS BURNS: COLLABOTRONICA”

Spectral space station training, etheric man-infestations,
re-imagined educational workshops, obsessive compulsive
androids, gestural researchers, and semi-dead hosts are
entwined at the spirited spine in this selection of works by
video makers who work together and apart.
These Collaborative works between Torsten Zenas Burns,
the Halflifers, Darrin Martin, The Foundry, Virocode and
Michael O’Malley chart a processed terrain of variable
speculative fictions.

WORKS TO BE SCREENED INCLUDE:
Ship to Ship (3:00 - variable date)
Torsten Zenas Burns & Mike O’Malley
Extending Trainer: Pressure suits & Broom-crafts (21:00 – 2007)
Torsten Zenas Burns
Afterlifers: Walking & Talking (Extendead version)
(23:00 – 2007) HALFLIFERS(Torsten Zenas Burns & Anthony Discenza)
I am today’s lesson plan – (11:00- variable date)
Torsten Zenas Burns & Darrin Martin

PARSONS HALL PROJECT SPACE (2008 EVENT)

VIDEO_DUMBO FESTIVAL 2008

Freund Hein | Elizabeth Smolarz | 2008 | 4:00 min.
Freund Hein is an anachronistic German vernacular expression, ‘Hein’ being the impersonation of Death as an unwelcome ‘friend’ knocking on once door. I my latest video installation I conceptualized a performance based film project as an exploration of the question of death. Since the human death is typically hidden from everyday life what is the source of our death-image? I invited people of different ages and backgrounds to my studio and asked them ‘to die’ in front of the camera. The participants were free to improvise in whatever way they wanted to pretend the act of dying. Some choose to be ‘shot’, some were ‘stabbed’, some ‘chocked', others said ‘good bye’, laid down and ‘died’. The sequences of these performances were mostly short, maximum a few minutes, showing that most people imagine the act of dying as an abrupt event, a crass unexpected rupture in the experience of an everyday time continuum.

Bamboos | Fanny Allié | 2008 | 00:45 sec.
My artwork revolves around the notion of Identity or loss of Identity and how we present ourselves to the world. The people I film are assigned to play a role or to follow a specific instruction in order to take a distance with their own self (their everyday “self”). In my last project called “The disappearance of the cleaning lady” (2008 - 2.32 min), I asked four cleaning ladies who have been working together for many years, to create a story about the possible and sudden disappearance of one of them. They therefore fill their role with their own feelings.

Parallel Paradises (Japan) | Manuel Saiz | 2007 | 4:00 min.
Rin and Mai are two dancers of parapara, a disco dance trend popular in Japan. Their perfectly synchronized movements have a very precise pace and protocol, like they were speaking an unknown language. They perform in a forest were their figure and attitude results heterogeneous to the organic movement the nature around them, both words exist complete in the same space but do not touch each other.

Tears for the Future | Javier Morales/John Michael Boling
2008 | 4:45 min.
Javier Morales/John Michael Boling have solo as well as collaborative practices. They are based in Athens, Georgia. Since 2005 they have worked together on videos, as well as a number of web-based projects, most notably the video web blog Channel 53. A selection of the duo’s earlier works are hosted on John Michael Boling’s redoubtable 53 o’s website
(in google search ‘53 o’s’ – quicker than typing www.goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
ooooooooooooooooooooooogle.com) where you can also view some of his and Morales’ individual works.

What If…? | Torsten Zenas Burns/Darrin Martin | 2008 | 11:47 min.
WHAT-IF? is an experimental video & installation unfolding a role-playing workshop where participants reenact a fictional polyamorous romance. The performance, played by a rotating international cast of artists, leads to a group wedding and honeymoon between characters based upon two obscure Marvel superheroes and two internationally renowned art personalities. The happy foursome are Stelarc, an artist whose cybernetic mission in life is to render the body obsolete; Orlan, an artist whose actual redefinition of her own body via plastic surgery confronts representations of woman throughout art history; the Scarlet Witch, a mutant superhero who has unlimited powers over probability, and the Vision, a “synthezoid” whose mechanically fabricated body contains a human soul. WHAT-IF?…unfolds the entangled story that brought this romantic foursome together spanning the gulf between genders and representations; the body and technology.

A Matter of Fiction | Julie Casper Roth | 2008 | 3:35 minutes
A Matter of Fiction is a study of truth in traditional documentary film. It takes a recognizable model of documentary film - the historical documentary - and alters it to demonstrate the vulnerability of supposedly reputable information. The result places historical scholars in a web of fictional banter about their own lives and indiscretions. Commentary that was utilized in an authoritative context becomes banal.This humorous piece was born out of the artist's own work in documentary filmmaking and her acknowledgement of the vulnerability of truth.

From above | Fanny Allié | 2008 | 1:30 min.
My artwork revolves around the notion of Identity or loss of Identity and how we present ourselves to the world. The people I film are assigned to play a role or to follow a specific instruction in order to take a distance with their own self (their everyday “self”).

Sittin' on a Million | Penny Lane/Annmarie Lanesey | 2008 | 26 min.
Mame Faye did not exist... At least that's what the history books would have you believe. Prostitutes and madams, no matter how popular and successful, are not part of legitimate history. But the citizens of Troy, New York insist that Mame Faye did exist. Everyone past the age of retirement has a story - funny, sordid, unbelievable - about Troy's most famous madam. Filmmakers Penny Lane and Annmarie Lanesey present these stories in all their contradictory glory, alongside vintage erotica, reenactments, and street performances. Mame Faye ran a world famous house of prostitution in Troy, New York for almost forty years (c. 1906 to 1941). Mame's story offers a rare view into sex, money, politics, and women's place in society in the early 20th century. Sittin' on a Million asks us to consider the role of memory and imagination in creating history, and reminds us about all those ordinary, extraordinary people erased from the official record.

PROBE COLLABORATING WITH PROBES

FLESH CAPADES (MONKEYTOWN CURATION)

Flesh Capades
Sunday, September 7 @ 8pm
reservations are highly recommended
email monkeytown - monkeytownhq@aol.com
58 N 3rd St (btw. Kent & Wythe) Williamsburg, Brooklyn 11211
Admission $5, $10 Minimum*

86 minutes: total running time

Flesh Capades is an odd entry into the well-trodden paths in and around folds of soft tissue. The Fine Arts by Emily Vey Duke and Cooper Battersby begins the evening in search of a good idea, the basis of all art. Todd Herman’s Forbidden Acts visually unleashes the sexually charged poems written and performed by black disabled activist Leroy Moore through a thoughtful and provocative lens. “Fat floats” is the theme of Julie Wyman’s Buoyant, as the filmmaker weaves together the stories of a self-described group of fat synchronized swimmers, a Greek mathematician obsessed with floatation, and the unveiling of a device that allows one to swim without water. Torsten Zenas Burns and Darrin Martins’ The Abominable Freedom ends the evening with a hallucinatory lesson in social experiments that embrace witchcraft, polyamory, spectrophilia, and rebirthing techniques. Parental guidance is strongly suggested.

The Fine Arts, by Emily Vey Duke and Cooper Battersby, 3 minutes.

Forbidden Acts, by Todd Herman, 15 minutes.

Buoyant, by Julie Wyman, 27 minutes.

The Abominable Freedom, by Torsten Zenas Burns and Darrin Martin, 41 minutes.

For more information on these artists:
http://www.dukeandbattersby.com
http://www.todd-herman.com
http://www.iamjuliewyman.net
http://holyokeresearch.blogspot.com
http://darrinmartin.com

WHAT-IF? (GROKIT)

NADIANAUTICA

KOREANAUTICA ( "BOKKO" CHOREOGRAPHIC PAYLOAD SPECIALIST )
SPECIAL THANKS TO: NADIA OKA

THE ABOMINABLE FREEDOM ( JERSEY CITY ACTIVATION)

"_______IN A BOX"
GROUP IMAGE CLUSTERING GRID SHOW
AT THE CANCO BUILDING IN JERSEY CITY - SEPTEMBER 20TH
CURATED BY BILLY MILLER / ARTLAB
"THE ABOMINABLE FREEDOM"
IS A COLLABORATION WITH DARRIN MARTIN
"_______IN A BOX"
Inspired by the architecture and mythology of The
American Can Company(a/k/a CANCO), ____ In A Box
presents ideas and sensations as images contained in
standardized packaging. The city, the Canco factory (and
the product made there), the room, the book, the computer
the TV, the painting, the DVD/CD, etc. are ALL boxes,
inside of boxes. And in all instances, forces and substances
both solid and abstract are contained for storage and
consumption.For this project, each artist has submitted
1-8 unframed, unsigned printouts on various kinds of paper
using different types of mechanical reproduction
(xerox, inkjet, laser, etc.). More of an expanded book layout
than a conventional art show, the entire kit-and-kaboodle
will fit into an actual single box to form an archive that will
then travel to be displayed again in a gallery, museum,
submarine, or space station. A pop/punk
imploding/exploding graphic whateverable.
The participants range from local to international
talent and from professional to first time exhibitors.
Made for different reasons, and for a variety of audiences,
the artwork here is presented democratically as a grid
of images - not unlike a museum display of industrial artifacts.
Through the uniformity of format and design of the installation,
curator Billy Miller and designer Jan Wandrag are attempting to
paradoxically convey the individuality and uniqueness of each
artist’s vision.
The exhibition will take place at Canco Lofts, 50 Dey Street,
Jersey City, NJ, with 10 other exhibitions Reception/Studio Tour
Kick-off Celebration: October 3rd from 6-10pm Exhibition
hours: Saturdays from noon to 5pm, Sept. 20, 27,
Oct. 11, 18, and during the Jersey City Artists Studio Tour
on Saturday and Sunday Oct. 4th and 5th from noon to 6pm

HALFHEADING

RESEARCHED (READYPLADE)

8 KOREANAUTICALS (OUTPOSTIAN PROCESSING)

SPECIAL THANKS TO:
-BROOKLYN'S "OUTPOST" RESIDENCY PROGRAM!
-DANIEL VATSKY!
-ALL PARTICIPANTS IN THE KOREANAUTICA PROJECT

SCREENING: EXCHANGE PROGRAM (GALACTICA/LIFESPACE)

LIGHT INDUSTRY PRESENTS:
Tuesday, July 29, 2008 at 8pm

"outsite with the others"
Curated by eteam

The summer is all about the outdoors and outdoor activities. In the program out site with the others, artists who traveled there send out insight views and instructions on how to face reality, when suddenly enveloped by the outside and forced to be guided by the others. The program explores how these artists navigate the distance and communicate in these surroundings. Naturally the transmissions are fragmented, distorted and removed and make us wonder: Why is the outside so isolating? And who are the others? Why can’t we see them? Is the out side just a stage on which we act when in need of some more mental space? Is it the rain that talks to us, or the bird that gives us directions?

Lo-Fi Green Sigh, Kristin Lucas, video, 2004
Shot on location at Biosphere 2 and in the surrounding Arizona desert, Lo-Fi Green Sigh is a playful pastiche of science fiction movie conventions, scored to ominous electronic drones. Lucas' student collaborators and artist colleagues don makeshift space-suits and play badminton among the cacti, while Lucas herself scans the electromagnetic spectrum with an antenna fashioned from a vegetable steamer. With its retro-futuristic architecture, eerily artificial interiors, and otherworldly landscapes, Lo-Fi Green Sigh merges B-movie science and science fiction, with echoes of Roswell, alien life, and extra-terrestrial feedback. - EAI

Zwischenzeit – Suedrand (Interim Time – Southern Outskirts), Annette Goedde / Arnold von Wedemeyer, video, 2007
Based on paintings of children’s portraits in landscapes from the beginning of the 19th century, the two artists developed a film in which a camera revolving on its own axis films a 360-degree panorama of the outskirts of Berlin. By replacing the accessories of the painted children with contemporary ones and shifting the picture backgrounds, the atmosphere of the 100 year-old pictures was transposed into a modern setting. With the use of a camera capable of shooting at high frame rate, the loop appears as a picture-like panorama with extremely slow motion movements and minimum action.

OYMA (Outstanding Young Men of America),
Michael Smith, video, 1996
Mike gets nominated as an Outstanding Young Man of America and decides to have a party to celebrate. He digs out his Disco suits and, 'strutting his funky stuff' to the sound of Disco Inferno, sets up glitter balls and decorates the house. Night falls as Mike looks to the sky and contemplates his future as an OYMA. Smith's deadpan style, and the fact that he is celebrating on his own, undermines the expectations of celebrating society's recognition of the individual, as represented by the presumably fictional OYMA. - EAI

EXCHANGE PROGRAM:GALACTICA / LIFESPACE,
Torsten Zenas Burns, video, 2002
A fusion between architectural bodies and space-time bodies. Reimagining one's life aboard an improvisational spacestation.

Testfahrt 2, Harry Sachs and Franz Hoeffner, video, 2002
Venice by car.

King, Olaf Breuning, video, 2000
A tattooed, dreadlocked man races through the desert, dons a knight’s armour - over which he wears shorts - flings a sword around and runs off. Later the film becomes a kind of pop video, with a parade of figures in blackface and others in ghost costume. - frieze

tests of courage, eteam, video stream, 2008
A live narrated challenge in Second Life.

The Meadow, Bjørn Melhus, video, 2007
In his works the artist Bjørn Melhus subjects well-known, foremost American, media formats and their reception by a more an more commercialised society to a process of reflection, de-construction and re-conceptualisation. Melhus borrows the characters of his works from the pop culture constituted in film and television and with their help questions the myths of our consciousness of media. - Anita Becker Frankfurt

Since 1998 Hajoe Moderegger and Franziska Lamprecht work on collaborative projects (since 2000 as eteam). Their projects have been shown in exhibitions at the PS1, NY; EYEBEAM, NY; MUMOK, Vienna; Momenta Art, Sara Meltzer Gallery, Nicole Klagsbrun in New York City and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Spain, among other venues. Videos by the eteam have been screened at the Transmediale, Berlin; TIDF Taipeh, the New York Video Festival, the 11th Biennale of the moving image Geneva and other festivals in the US, Europe and Asia. They have been awarded a NYSCA Grant, a Harvestworks Artist Grant, an EYEBEAM Production Grant, and an Experimental Television Center Finishing Fund. In 2005 they have been selected for the "New Commissions Program" with Art in General, NY and were awarded a Digital Matrix Commission. They are fellows of Yaddo and Macdowell Colony and received a 2007/08 Rhizome commission for their project secondlife dumpster.
LIGHT INDUSTRY
Events take place in Industry City
55 33rd Street (between 2nd and 3rd Avenue), 3rd Floor
http://www.lightindustry.org/
Brooklyn, NY 11232

HALFLIFERS GROUP SHOW

Catharine Clark Gallery presents:
Cummings, Birk, Diaz Hope, HalfLifers at Catherine Clark Gallery
July 19 - August 23, 2008; opening Saturday, July 19, 5-7pm, San Francisco
MORE INFO: www.cclarkgallery.com
Catharine Clark Gallery's New Location
150 Minna Street, Ground Floor (between 3rd and New Montgomery)
San Francisco, CA, 94105 - 415-399-1439

Catharine Clark Gallery
Solo Exhibition: Timothy Cummings: "Last Call"
Installation: Sandow Birk selections from "Leading Causes of Death in America"; Andy Diaz Hope with Laurel Roth
Video Project: AfterLifers: Walking and Talking by HalfLifers (Anthony Discenza and Torsten Zenas Burns)
July 19 - August 23, 2008

Catharine Clark Gallery announces the upcoming solo exhibitions of new paintings by Timothy Cummings, titled "Last Call". "AfterLifers: Walking and Talking", a collaborative video project by Anthony Discenza and Torsten Zenas Burns, will be featured in the Video Project Room. Selections from Sandow Birk's "Ten Leading Causes of Death" will be featured in the back gallery, along with a collaborative installation by Andy Diaz Hope and Laurel Roth. An opening reception for the artists is Saturday, July 19, 5 - 7pm.

For Cummings, last call is a state of existence where the perpetual desire to nurse a drink functions as an antidote for the pain associated with a more sober experience of contemporary life. In an era of continuous bad news, Cummings argues, many dangerously choose diversion over engagement. Cummings' zombie-youth admonish the viewer that without awareness and action, we may soon face a political reality that is devoid of choice, where our voices are rendered silent, and we too resemble the zombie characters of horror films.

HalfLifers, Anthony Discenza and Torsten Zenas Burns, working with reimagined zombie-characters in their collaborative video work since 1994, exhume cinema's favorite incarnation of mindless, decaying mortality in the hopes of breathing new life into this misunderstood figure.

A selection of prints from Sandow Birk's series "The Ten Leading Causes of Death" alongside a chandelier constructed from pills and hypodermic needles by Andy Diaz Hope and Laurel Roth, similarly examine how certain behavior, generally in excess, contributes to a zombie-like existence that can lead to a general apathy towards life.

SUNY PURCHASE (EDU-DVD)