FRI 31 anti-loft, A Symposium about making space, domestic practice, and public life presents a screening curated by Kika Thorne: Abigail Child's neo-narrative on homelessness, B/side, is accompanied by 35mm and Super 8 performances from Darren O'Donnell and (with DJ RV), videos by Jin's Banana House and Alex Morrison and an offsite installation by Peaches + Matt Kelly. 9pm. Free. Art System, 327 Spadina 2nd floor. www.anti-loft.org
Jin's Banana House shows 5 new super short videos (Loss Is Inevitable, video, 13 mins),
Peggy Anne Berton tells stories with live Super 8 projection while DJ RV's spins a score (untitled, 9 mins),
Darren O'Donnell presents Love Doesn't Live Here Anymore, 35mm slides with live performance, 9 mins.
We will screen Abigail Child's neo-narrative on homelessness, B/side, 16mm, 38 mins.
In the front window Alex Morrison (HOME WRECKER, 3 mins, loop).
Offsite at 701 Queen St. West, 3rd floor window and across the street, Peaches + Matt Kelly present two window projections.
PROGRAMME NOTES
Jin's Banana House Loss Is Inevitable
Off Road Event #1 (1999) Video NTSC betasp 35 sec (silent) short video animation beloved Jin's Banana House vehicle is blown to bits in effort to imitate best of action films
spit trick (1999) video NTSC betasp 2min a short video fit to be shown either on real teevee or stupid tricks or now that is incredible or dumb home movies if there were such programs on contemporary television, a woman does spit tricks for the camera; you wont see this on national television
most beautiful girl (1999) video NTSC betasp 2 min. Jin's Banana House performance on video singing along on hand spun '45 player to charlie rich's rendition of most beautiful girl, setto frantic pace of busy laundromat in new york city where Jin's Banana House was residing for short period of time
a couple and a thief (1999) video NTSC betasp 2 min. shot in rustic b/w super 8 and projected on a wall reshot in video two people selling things in public despite what people say about buying art, people do understand something about bargains set to a story about a couple i heard as a child
thirty days of solitude (1999) video NTSC betasp 2 min. (silent) super 8 film transferred to video about doing something everyday
true confession #1 (1999) video NTSC betasp 2 min. road movie, narrator confesses to a heinous crime of confusion and bad thinking
making money: wasting time (1999) video NTSC betasp 2 min. a story which first appeared in some german newspaper caught my fancy because it mentioned street/performance art
a dream, (1999) video NTSC betasp 1 min.
"We believe in doing what others don't want to do we believe in doing things at the last minute we believe in hair goo we believe in lies we believe in making plans we believe in getting up early and drinking a lot of coffee we believe in such pleasures as staying in bed all day we believe in having breakfast at three in the afternoon we believe in working hard we believe in working out we believe in going disco dancing" - Jin's Banana House
Darren O'Donnell Love Doesn't Live Here Anymore 35mm slides with live performance, 9 min.
Love Doesn't Live Here Anymore is a series of slides in a sad demonstration of a city haunted by love.
Peggy Anne Berton untitled (excerpt) Super 8 film live projector manipulation and story telling, 9 min.
One roll of unedited colour film projected live, mimicking the speed it was originally recorded at, shot during a night on acid, Peggy Anne and her friends find the wilderness in the city. Berton's candid storytelling reflects the moment, the filmstock, the light, the audience, her sentiment...
Originally shown as one roll in an hour long performance, this excerpt may or may not be accompanied by DJRV whose subtle responses underscore the evening. Peggy Anne Berton and Richard Vermeulen performed at the Cameron House once a week during the month of September1999 and Jan February 2000.
Abigail Child B/side 16mm 38 min.
Child's B/side is a provocative exploration of the urban homeless, combining sensitive footage of their exterior situation and entering imaginatively into interior fantasies. Framed by footage of the encampmetn locally known as Dinkinsville on New York's Lower East Side, where some of the homeless of Thomkins Square Park settled after the riots of June 1991, the movie begins with the encampments first night and ends with the fire and subsequent destruction of the lot in October of the same year. Applying rythmic construction, poetic license and a generous eye to bodies in poverty, B/side documents a gritty vision of late 20th century urban life.
Official Selection London and Rotterdam International Film Festivals, Whitney Biennial, Oberhausen, Ann Arbour Film Festival Prizewinner, Museum of Modern Art.
"Child weaves fiction and documentary as she charts the establishment of Dinkinsville in Lower Manhattan, an encampment created by the homeless in June 1991 to it's destruction five months later. The film centres on a homeless woman (Sheila Dabney), representing her memories of life in an unnamed Caribbean nation through archival footage." - Kevin Thomas, LA Times
"B/side shows the other side of Reaganomics, Director Abigail Child combines documentary with fiction and smart wit in a poetic montage to present a complicated and heartfelt portrait of colonialism at home." - The Daily, Rotterdam Film Festival
"... few of the films, experimental or otherwise, display the visual confidence and sociaopolitical torque of Abigail Child's meditation on homelessness, B/side., which is as modest and resonant as most alternative film is jejune. " - Michael Atkinson, The Village Voice, April 1997 on the Whitney Biennial
In the front window of ART SYSTEM Alex Morrison HOME WRECKER Loop Skateboarder Alex Morrison uses every surface in his house.
OffSite Peaches and Matt Kelly Super 8 Installation 701 Queen Street West, 3rd floor and across the street at 624 Queen Street West. Peaches and Matt Kelly live across the street from each other, they will project Super 8 films of themselves hanging out, puttering, onto the windows of their respective rooms.