Event
THE DUVET BROTHERS + DARA BIRNBAUM + KEN JACOBS + JACOB CIOCCI + STEVE REICH - MOT International
For the final event of our 2010 project at MOT International, artist Hannah Perry has organised an evening of video screenings and performance, based around the use of found footage, repetition and composition. There will be four short video screenings by Dara Birnbaum, The Duvet Brothers, Jacob Ciocci, and Ken Jacobs, culminating in a performance of the Steve Reich piece 'Piano Phase,' 1967 with Sam Mackay and Hannah Gallagher. Dara Birnbaum (born in 1946 in New York, USA), uses iconic clips from American TV such as quiz shows, soap operas, and sports programs, that operate as readymades through the manipulation of the medium of film. Her techniques involve the repetition of images and edits with text and music. ' We will be screening Technology/Transformation; Wonder Woman,' 1978, arguably Birnbaum's most renowned piece of work. Here she uses appropriated clips from TV series Wonder Woman, repeating sequences and manipulating audio sequences. The Duvet Brothers, also known as Rik Lander and Peter Boyd Maclean, are influential 1980s scratch video artists who produced their main body of work between 1984-1988. They created ground-breaking pop videos, commercials, and TV title sequences using found footage and sampling to produce music and scratch video. They reformed for the first time in over 20 years presenting a piece at Dundee Contemporary Arts earlier this year. We will be screening ‘Fuh Fuh,' 1986 a rarely seen 30 second video. Jacob Ciocci’s (born 1976, USA) work deals with the relationship between popular culture and popular technology. 'Booty Melt,' 2008, a mash-up of re-edited YouTube clips and original flash animation, explores the conflation of cartoon violence and real or implied violence in the pop vernacular. This piece will be looped on a monitor throughout the evening. Ciocci is a member of Paper Rad, an artist collective based in Pittsburg,USA. Ken Jacobs (born in 1933, USA) is an American experimental video artist working largely with found footage. A pioneer of the American film avant-garde of the 1960s and 70s he is still experimenting with digital video today. 'Perfect Film,' 1985 is made up of “discard TV newscast about the murder of Malcolm X in Harlem. The16mm footage is reprinted as found with exception of boosting the volume in the second half. Finally there will be a performance Steve Reich’s ‘Piano Phase,' 1967 written for two pianos comprising of a twelve note melody. The music we hear in 'Piano Phase' is the result of the application of Reich's "phasing" technique to the initial twelve note melody being played by two pianists. Reich's phasing works generally by having two identical lines of music, which begin by playing synchronously, but slowly become out of phase with one another due to different tempos and signatures. Steve Reich was born in 1936 in New York, USA.
