Odds and Ends Volume 4
“United State of Mind”
programmed by galleryHomeland film and video curator Karl Lind
TRT: 34 mins.
* many thanks go out to galleryHomeland Director Paul Middendorf for introducing Odds and Ends to the Urban Nomad Film Festival and vice versa!
“United State of Mind”
programmed by galleryHomeland film and video curator Karl Lind
TRT: 34 mins.
* many thanks go out to galleryHomeland Director Paul Middendorf for introducing Odds and Ends to the Urban Nomad Film Festival and vice versa!
Please join us for a very special edition of the Odds and Ends screening series which will be presented by the Urban Nomad Film Festival on Oct 11th at the Taepei Biennial. In This edition we we present a tasty sampling of films and videos made by a smattering of artists hailing from the good old USA (except for one German citizen currently living in Texas: Katja Straub) who each present us with their own colorfully diverse vision of life, liberty and the pursuit of pursuing happiness.
Program:
1. TO REMEMBER THAT OUR SKIES ARE THE SAME SKIES by Chris Larson 2 min 30 sec. 2008 Portland, OR. USA
Synoposis:
on distance. on environment. on here. on heat. on commonality. on heart. on there.
Bio:
Chris Lael Larson is an multi-disciplinary artist, musician and graphic designer who lives and works in Portland, Oregon, USA.
website
www.natural-lightning.com
2. Night Falls by John Bacone, 1 min. Portland, OR. USA 2006
Synopsis:
a triumphant struggle against motor vehicles.
Bio:
John Bacone is a sculptor and filmmaker living in Portland, Oregon.
3. Brave New Girl by Holly Andres and Grace Carter 2.5 min. Portland, OR. USA
Synopsis:
BRAVE NEW GIRL examines what it means to be female in our culture as defined by the media. With its saturated colors and super 8mm nostalgia, the film puts the heroine in a confined space and tempts her with artificial confections. What does it mean to consume an identity? What effects might it have on girls and women? These are some of the questions the viewer is left to ponder when this short whirlwind of consumption is over.
Bio:
Holly Andres approaches her art in a multidisciplinary manner, and works in film, photography, sculpture and installation. In collaboration with performer/filmmaker Grace Carter, Andres created the short films DANDELION, BRAVE NEW GIRL and their newest narrative, NORA. Their work has been featured in the NW Film + Video Festival, Best of the Northwest Touring Program, the Portland International Film Festival, the Portland Experimental Film Festival, the Oregon Biennial at the Portland Art Museum and the Perpetual Art Machine in New York. Andres teaches video production and foundation art classes at PSU and the Art Institute of Portland.
website
www.hollyandres.com
Bio:
Grace Carter has been working in theatre arts and filmmaking for the past six years in Portland, OR. She Co-founded the critically acclaimed defunct theatre and collaborated as a producer, director and actor on several stage performances. Grace’s films have been screened at several regional festivals including the 32nd annual Northwest Film and Video Festival, The PDX Fest and the Oregon Biennial at the Portland Art Museum. Grace has also worked as an actor on many film projects the most recent “Paranoid Park,” a new feature by Gus Van Sant.
website
www.gracecarterfilms.com
4. Taco Day, music video for Mr. Len featuring Jean Grae directed by Chioke Nassor, 3min 45 sec. 2001 NY, NY USA.
Bio: Chioke Nassor is a filmmaker, philanthropist and all around good guy. He recently completed an animated short film adaptation of the McSweeney’s story “Things I realized in 2002” by Sarah Manguso.
website
www.chiokenassor.com
5. The White Bunny by Katja Straub, Germany 2006 6.5 min.
synopsis:
Transformation in a train compartment. “The White Bunny” explores the conscious and sub-conscious longings of the human mind, told through the story of a woman, an injured boy, a small girl in a red dress, and a white bunny. A tale of four strangers as they travel together on a visual exploration of pain, love, memory, and the loss of innocence. The woman’s trauma reveals itself through the haunting form of a German nursery rhyme and we follow her into her past.
Bio:
Katja Straub is an artist, writer, and filmmaker whose films have screened in numerous festivals around the world including the Images Festival in Toronto, the Viper Basel in Switzerland and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Her short film "All White People Are French" received the Special Jury Award at the South By Southwest Film Festival in Austin in 2005.
website
www.rocketfilm.de
6. Test Anthem by Michael Paulus 3 min 30 sec. Portland, OR. USA
Synopsis:
198 national anthems from the world’s countries arranged in a vertical,
symmetrical stack. Played for the duration with bell curve as defined parameter with demarcation line representing point of departure to the - unattainable?
The longest – Uraguay’s begins and ends the audio with a nice, loping intro. The shortest anthem from Qatar comes in a mere 36 seconds and is sandwiched directly in the middle with most others as most anthems come in at a minute or less. I was curious to see if at the apex, beyond the expected dissonant sounds on the sides of the curve, there might be almost a pure, white nose. Static. It comes close though.
Based on government tests (atomic blasts, plane military test crashes) we are taken through a test – this time with themes closer to the human condition: want, desire, and spiritual transcendence if you will. The parameters are already set though. Could be construed as ultimately fatalistic and pessimistic. That’s possible.
Bio:
Michael Paulus is an artist living in Portland Oregon. The marriage of science and art play prominently in his work, often times creating objects that are inherently misguided or dysfunctional in design. A parody of types on the sometimes absolute efficiency and logic that we come to expect from tools and technology.
The figures in his moving image work are usually ‘specimens’ to be observed and usually find themselves in absurd situations they are ill adept to comprehend.
In his static work often times there is an interchange between object and viewer. Sometimes testing the perceptions of the viewer and often times using an established medium or tool/design and tweaking it a bit to put it in a critical context
Website: http://michaelpaulus.com/
7. Weathergirl 1 By Liz Haley Portland, OR. USA 2008 4 min.
synopsis:
weathergirl 1 explores relationships between patterns of organic energy,
new scientific discoveries, human emotional experience and the weather.
bio:
liz haley is a conceptual artist using installation, photography, video
and performance to investigate connection, trust, urban-rural,
future-past, quantum physics and love. her work has been widely shown,
including exhibits in new york, portland tba festival and the miami museum
of contemporary art.
website
www.lizhaley.com
8. Timor Mortis by Sare Rane, 4.5 min Portland, OR. USA
Synopsis:
A dance for sea and air inspired by and created for the song Timor Mortis by Rio En Medio.
Bio:
Sare Rane is originally from the high desert of northern New Mexico but now makes her home in Portland, Oregon. She began making videos three years ago with a desire to capture the unexpected poetry of the world we live in. She has degrees in Theater and Cultural Anthropology from UC Santa Barbara.
website
www.onehorseproductions.blogspot.com
9. Phototrope by Randy Wakerlin 1 min. 2007, Portland, OR. USA
Synopsis:
Multi-Cam Pixelation
Bio:
Randall Davis Wakerlin holds a BA in Film/Animation from Hampshire College, (MA) and an MFA in Experimental Animation from California Institute of the Arts, (CA). Wakerlin’s film figure 1: Scar (detail) won Best Animation awards in both the Pacific Coast Film Festival (Del Mar, CA) and the Seattle Underground Film Festival (Seattle, WA) in 2000 and has been widely screened around the U.S. His most recent work In Good Spirits features live action documentary footage of the Hilltribe cultures of Northern Thailand with animated segments of Hilltribe textiles. Recent projects include various short animation pieces such as Twenty-Six, a documentation of one year of Mr. Wakerlin’s life, and collaborations with Portland, OR composer Matt Marble and Emily Stone entitled Chroma where Wakerlin's animation was projected behind dancers in a performance based on the color orange at Gallery 500 (Portland, OR). He is currently collaborating with Los Angeles composer Nicholas Chase creating an interactive work for video and solo piano entitled Star Trenching. Mr. Wakerlin resides in Portland, Oregon where he is working with animators Chel White and David Daniels at Bent Image Lab and teaches animation at Pacific University.
website
www.secondaday.com
10. John Bacone “Support your library" 1 min. 2007 Portland, OR. USA
synopsis:
Borrowed Library video = fun
11. American Make-Over by Ron Gassaway (1min41sec) 2008 Portland, OR. USA
Evolving the advanced science of rose-colored glasses, American Make-Over aspires to provoke a playful public revolution with paint and plexiglass.
Ron Mason Gassaway was born in Portland, Oregon in 1969. He has worked for nearly 20 years as a commercial artist and is currently a returning student at Portland State University, furthering his skills as a fine artist through film making, installation work, performance and 2D art.
12. Gates of Steel Karaoke Music Video by Karl Lind 4 min 20 sec. 2008 Portland, OR. USA
Synopsis:
The Gates of Steel Karaoke Music Video allows viewers to become part of the action and sing along with a zany tail that illustrates the beginning of the end for all of mankind. Audience participation is highly encouraged!
Bio:
Karl Lind is a filmmaker and the curator of the Odds and Ends screening series, he currently lives in Portland, Oregon. His short films and videos have screened at various venues around the Earth, Including: Dallas Video Festival, PDX Film Festival, Other Cinema and Rotterdam International Film Festival.
website
www.inthecanllc.com
