On the Boards and the Henry Art Gallery are pleased to co-present a three-night screening series. Curated by the Henry, this multi-evening event features work by a variety of artists who use moving images to explore issues critical to the present moment and our collective future, from migration and global trade to the reparative power of representation. In their own way, each of these artworks considers the various ways bodies move and are moved and shaped, whether by personal memory, historical narrative, or institutions of power.
Please join us for these unique viewing experiences. In recent years, the On the Boards parking lot has been a badminton court, a beer garden, and between December 4 and 6, it’s an outdoor drive-in movie theater!
SCHEDULE
Friday, December 4, 7 PM
Ellie Ga, Gyres 1-3 (2019–2020; 39 min)
In this tripartite video, Ellie Ga draws inspiration from the dynamics of ocean currents, and explores the movement of people and things. Gyres 1-3 is a series of nested stories that span geographies and include the tidal drift of Japanese tsunami debris to the coast of Washington State, the ritual launching of messages in bottles into the Aegean Sea, and the arrival of asylum seekers and refugees to the Greek Islands.
Candice Lin, Toxic Semiotics (2020; 23 min)
Toxic Semiotics features a semi-fictional story about the global transportation of chemical waste. The imagery connects the landscape of California with that of the Middle East to highlight the entangled histories of bioprospecting and militarization.
Sable Elyse Smith, Shaun Leonardo, and Melanie Crean, Mirror/Echo/Tilt (2019; 19 min)
Mirror/Echo/Tilt is a collaborative project between artists, educators, and individuals affected by the justice system. The artists and participants draw on principles from speculative fiction, somatic movement, cognitive psychology, and radical theater to explore the potential for reclaiming agency within the oppressive structures of incarceration and narratives of criminality.
Total run time: 81 min
Saturday, December 5, 7 PM
Kara Walker, Fall Frum Grace, Miss Pipi’s Blue Tale (2011; 17 min)
Kara Walker confronts representations of Blackness and slavery in America through a shadow puppet video set in the plantation fields of the Antebellum South. Fall Frum Grace, Miss Pipi’s Blue Tale examines the consequences of the intimate encounters between Southern belle Miss Pipi and a Black slave.
Sky Hopinka, maɬni – towards the ocean, towards the shore (2020; 80 min)
Maɬni – towards the ocean, towards the shore follows two people on their separate paths of contemplating the afterlife, rebirth, and the place in-between. Spoken mostly in chinuk wawa, their stories are departures from the Chinookan origin of death myth, and builds upon Sky Hopinka’s explorations of home, identity, and language.
Total run time: 97 min
Sunday, December 6, 7 PM
Alex Da Corte, Slow Grafitti (2017; 13 min)
Slow Graffiti is a shot-for-shot remake of the 1967 film The Perfect Human by Danish director Jorgen Leth. Alex Da Corte’s interpretation features him dressed as Frankenstein’s monster, speaking to constructed and conflicted identity.
Alex Da Corte, Blue Moon (2017; 3 min)
Alex Da Corte transforms Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart’s classic song “Blue Moon” into a surreal, collective karaoke session. Costumed as a moon, Da Corte sings a love song about alienation, longing, and desire, while the lyrics scroll at the bottom of the screen.
Alex Da Corte, The Open Window (2018; 11 min)
The Open Window portrays musician Annie Clark (known professionally as St. Vincent) holding a one-eyed cat and crescendoing her expressions into sheer terror. Alex Da Corte’s use of kitsch elements manifests fear and uncertainty.
Rachel Rose, Wil-o-Wisp (2018; 10 min)
Set against the backdrop of 17th century rural England, Wil-O-Wisp imagines how the practice of magic influences the life of mystic Elspeth Blake. The work questions how perception and coincidence affect our experience of the world.
Rachel Rose, Lake Valley (2016; 8 min)
Known for her immersive, multisensory installations, Rachel Rose draws themes and imagery from the history of children’s literature to tell a fantastical story about the life of a young girl and her pet.
Sasha Wortzel and Tourmaline, Happy Birthday Marsha! (2018; 15 min)
Happy Birthday, Marsha! celebrates iconic transgender artist and activist, Marsha P. Johnson, and imagines her life in the hours before the 1969 Stonewall Riots.
Sasha Wortzel, We Have Always Been On Fire (2018; 6 min)
Set among the dunes of Fire Island, We Have Always Been On Fire weaves together a performance of Morgan Bassichis singing to and invoking the queer ghosts of the island with 1976 footage by queer nightlife documentarian Nelson Sullivan. The film traces a queer lineage and engages with loss.
Total run time: 66 min
Read the artist bios
here.
CREDITS
This program is co-presented with On the Boards.