Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Go Forth and Screen Video


Philippe Decrauzat
A change of speed, A change of style, A change of scene; Part II, 2007
16mm film, B&W, audio by New Humans
3m 15s



A couple weeks ago I had the chance to speak with Matt Suib and Nadia Hironaka about their brand new all-video, all-the-time, project room, Screening. The humble space is dedicated to bringing challenging and engaging works by emerging and established video artists to the Philadelphia public. In their words, Screening is, "less institutional than a museum, but more formal than your living room". Obviously, they have never been to my house. Actually, Screening is a perfectly clean white rectangle addendum to Vox Populi in that amazing building, 319 N. 11th St., in downtown Philly, that houses Copy Gallery as well as the Screening and Vox.
I might also mention that Matt and Nadia are both super swell video artists in their own right. Matt was recently in the 2007 Moscow Bienniel, and had a solo gig at Lump Gallery/Projects in April of this year. The Lump show included a rad sound and lighting installation called "Flavin' Flav". Yes, you guessed it, Public Enemy was bumping from Lumps' project room while large white flourescent lights strobed to the beat. You can check out his stellar works, including the audacious, "Purified by Fire", (a multi-channel video and audio installation that gives the illusion of a raging structure fire by projecting video on the windows of a gallery way up above street level), right here.
Meanwhile, Nadia, ain't doing so bad herself. She was awarded the Pew Fellowship of the Arts in 2006, and has a user friendly website where you or someone you love can watch lil' clip snips of her video/film work. I reccomend, "Camoflauge", and "National". Two very different pieces that dervive from the same love of cinematic granduer and it's effect on the veiwer. A video fetish shared by her hubs Matt Suib, as well.
This month at Screening: Philippe Decrauzat, "A change of speed, A change of style, A change of scene; Part II. Running through July 1, 2007. Ok, I'm late with this article, sorry guys. Decrauzat, a Swiss artist, has brought to Screening a 3m 15s, B&W 16mm film, 'structured after the first recording of a radio signal from a Pulsar-discovered in 1967 by astrophysicists Jocelyn Bell and Antony Hewish, the signal resembled what could have been an attempt at extra-terrestrial communication...".
Get your scoundrel butts in to see it before its gone. For more information, go to www.screeningvideo.org.

-Jerstin Crosby