LESXFR vol.1
Jim C., Andrea Callard, Educational Video Center, Franck Goldberg, Dov Jacobson, Joan Jubela, Mindy Stevenson, and Minoru Yoshida
August 4—6, 11—13, 2017
Screening Reception with XFR Collective: August 4, 7—9 pm
A Video Still from Fragments of a Self Portrail #1, 1972, by Andrea Callard
Ulterior Gallery is excited to present LESXFR vol. 1, a screening of eight videos presented in collaboration with XFR Collective (pronounced “transfer collective”). The videos have been transferred to digital format from archival footage and capture moments of culture, art, and politics on the Lower East Side and nearby areas over the course of three decades.
XFR Collective grew out of the XFR STN exhibition at the New Museum in 2013. Proposed by Alan W. Moore, co-founder of the Monday/Wednesday/Friday Video Club and a member of the artists’ group Colab, the two-month-long exhibition operated as an open-door, artist-centered media archiving project. After the exhibition closed, Colab member Andrea Callard and moving-image archivists Rebecca Fraimow, Julia Kim, and Kristin MacDonough formed the XFR Collective as a small non-profit organization in 2014. The organization has since recruited a wider membership and today continues its mission to digitize video materials in order to preserve images recorded on obsolete formats that would otherwise be lost.
For this video screening, XFR Collective and Ulterior Gallery co-curated footage that evokes the cultures of the Lower East Side and downtown New York from the 1970s through the 1990s. On August 5–6 and 11–13, the program begins at the top of every hour from noon to 6 pm.
Mindy Stevenson, Drug Bust, 1980, 6 minutes
Through the window of a neighboring apartment, Mindy Stevenson (aka Mindy Olsen) was able to record a large-scale drug bust on Eldridge St. between Stanton and Houston on February 7, 1980 and the abuse and extensive damage that occurred as a result of the raid. Film-to-video telecine. Digitized by XFR STN.
Joan Jubela, Lola Pashalinski on Dyke TV, c. 1993, 6 minutes
Legendary Theater of the Ridiculous star Lola Pashalinski interviews herself and relates tales of playing a heterosexual sexpot in her work with Charles Ludlam. Digitized by XFR Collective.
Dov Jacobson, Human Vectors, 1982, 5 minutes
Human shapes dance, work, and play in early-1980s vector graphics (from the Vetrex game system) originally shown at RYO Gallery in the East Village in 1982. Music by Soma Holiday, art punk musicians based in Brooklyn at the time. Digitized by XFR STN.
Andrea Callard, Fragments of a Self Portrait #1, 1972, 2 minutes
A performance work by video artist Andrea Callard, shot by Mac Becket at 150 Chambers Street.
Students of Satellite Academy, A Double Negative Lesson, 1983, 8 minutes
Through raps and skits, students from Forsyth Satellite Academy educate viewers on what double negatives are, and why you should never use them. Digitized by the Educational Video Center.
Minoru Yoshida, Epicurism of Space Universe, Featuring Synthesizer Jacket #2, Spring St. and West Broadway, New York, NY, May 24, 1975, 1975, 15 minutes
A 1975 performance by Minoru Yoshida on a street corner in SoHo. A member of the Gutai artists collective in Japan, Yoshida lived in New York from 1970 through 1978 and completed numerous performance pieces in public spaces, including Artists Space and the New York Avant Garde Festival. In this video, he attempts to float in the sky by suspending himself from a building on Broadway. Digitized by the Estate of Minoru Yoshida.
Franck Goldberg, Post Riot Syndrome, 1988, 7 minutes
On the night of August 6–7, 1988, what began as a demonstration against a 1 am curfew in Tompkins Square Park escalated into riots between protesters and police officers, resulting in over 100 complaints of police brutality. In this short documentary video by Franck Goldberg, we see and hear reactions of people on the streets in the days after the riots. Features David Peel, Norman Siegel, and the song “Radio Riot” by X. Digitized by XFR STN.
Jim C., Miguel Piñero Poetry Reading at Magic Gallery, 1984, 3 minutes
Documentary footage of the legendary playwright, actor, and poet Miguel Piñero’s reading at Magic Gallery. Piñero passed away in 1988 at the age of 41 and his ashes were scattered across the Lower East Side, as he requested in his poem. Digitized by XFR STN.
XFR Collective is a non-profit organization that partners with artists, activists, individuals, and groups to lower the barriers to preserving at-risk audiovisual media – especially unseen, unheard, or marginalized works – by providing low-cost digitization services and fostering a community of support for archiving and access through education, research, and cultural engagement.
Donate to XFR Collective, click here.
Press
The Lo-Down Lower East Side-Centric Films From XFR Collective to Screen at Ulterior Gallery, August 3, 2017
Hamptons Art Hub NYC Gallery Shows to Know – Summer Highlights for August 2017, August 1, 2017