LESXFR vol.2
July 27—29, 2018
Opening Screening & Reception: July 27, 7—9 pm
Robert Beck, 11/22/88 (for Kimono), 1988, still image.
Ulterior Gallery is excited to present LESXFR vol. 2, continuing a collaboration with XFR Collective (pronounced “transfer collective”). The opening screening will take place on July 27 at 7pm with an public reception to follow. On July 28 and 29, the program will begin at the top of every hour from noon to 5pm.
This year’s screening will consist of ten videos that were transferred to digital file format during the XFR STN exhibition at the New Museum in 2013 or by XFR Collective members between 2014–2017, with one selection digitized by EAI in 2018. All works presented were created either by artists as artworks, or as documentation of work. All of the footage is from the Lower East Side and other New York neighborhoods and dates from the 1970s through the 1990s. The program is co-curated by XFR Collective and Ulterior Gallery. The short videos in the program capture fleeting moments in the lives and practices of creative souls in New York and evoke the history of artists who have lived and worked in the city.
About the Collective:
XFR Collective works to preserve at-risk and obsolete audiovisual community media by providing low-cost migration services to independent content creators for education, research, and cultural engagement. At its core, XFR Collective is designed to support the salvage, preservation, and circulation of born-analog media created by marginalized artists and organizations. XFR Collective believes that archiving, preserving, and making accessible community media outside of the mainstream is essential for the creation of a more inclusive understanding of our past and present.
Mitch Corber, Juan in NY, 1980, 12 minutes
An audiovisual symphony by Mitch Corber featuring sound effects of the city. The title is inspired by street footage of a boy playing handball. The video is comprised of black and white footage of pedestrians and intersections.
DJ Mr. E., The Spider Inside Me (part 2), 1997, 4 minutes
The second part of a Super 8 dystopian science fiction documentary in which a highly contagious virus spreads to a young artists' community in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The video gives a view of the developing artist scene in the neighborhood just before the turn of the century.
Joan Jubela, Stanton Davis, Rodney Stone, and K.K. Rockwell, Bombs Aren't Cool!, 1986, 5 minutes
Music video with South Bronx Community Action Theater teenagers protesting nuclear war through rapping, dancing, and animation. This video, directed by Joan Jubela, juxtaposes archival footage with a view of New York City in the 1980s.
Coleen Fitzgibbon, Kiki Smith Making Paper Bodies Sculpture, 1990, 5 minutes
Excerpt of artist Kiki Smith making paper body sculpture with her assistant Frank Yi at her studio on Ludlow Street in 1990. Filmed by Coleen Fitzgibbon.
Anton Perich, Tearing Down My Living Environment, 1976, 4 minutes
An artist (Colette Justine) is forced to move out of her live-work space on last-minute notice on Easter Sunday 1976. Steve Reichard and Anton Perich come to the artist's rescue; this video documents the process.
Robert Beck, 11/22/88 (for Kimono), 1988, 4 minutes
A diptych that utilizes two then state-of-the-art pieces of video equipment, a Hi-8 video camcorder and a consumer-grade video synthesizer. This is one of Beck’s impromptu video birthday gifts to his friends, given as a VHS copy of the original U-matic tape. With music by the Sugarcubes, “Christmas Day.” Beck’s video works are represented by EAI, New York.
Terry Mohre, Body Rocker, 1984, 4 minutes
Kinetic sculpture by Tom Butsch, captured on a home-made video device by Terry Mohre. “Body Rocker” was awarded a jurors prize at Videonale Festival For Contemporary Video Art in Bonn, Germany in 1984.
Felicia Telsey, Dancing in the Dark, 1991, 2 minutes
A simple hand-drawn animation created by Telsey that explores color and movement; made at the School of Visual Arts.
Diane Spodarek and Jay Yager, Corporate Vise, 1985, 4 minutes
This split-screen metaphor is a glimpse at the pressures that exist at the bottom of the corporate pyramid.
Andrea Callard, Drawers, 1975, 7 minutes
Drawers was made with Cara Perlman in Callard's studio on Chambers Street. A medium shot frames a set of white drawers; Callard pulls strings to repeatedly open the drawers in a sequence while Perlman pulls out many lines of clothing tied together.
Betsy Newman and Ellin Stein, Debate of the Dead, 1983, 5 minutes
This video features a reanimated John Wayne and Susan Hayward debating their deaths, and whether they resulted from nuclear fallout near the set of their 1956 Genghis Khan epic, The Conqueror. Produced and directed by Betsy Newman; Written by Ellin Stein.