The Modern Institute and Artprojx Cinema presents
A Grammar for Listening (Parts 1 – 3) 8.30pm & All Divided Selves 9.30pm
by
Luke Fowler
Friday March 9
at
SVA Theatre, 333 West 23rd Street (between 8th and 9th Avenues), New York, NY 10011
ENTRY IS FREE. RSVP artprojxcinema@gmail.com to confirm which screening or both.
http://www.artprojx.com
more details:
Luke Fowler
Friday 9 March 2012
A Grammar for Listening (Parts 1 – 3) 8.30pm
Silence dominated the experimental film of the 1960s. Sound or musical accompaniment was often dismissed as illustrative, manipulative or redundant. Instead, a return to experiments of early cinema concentrated on rhythm, structure and material and thereby considered film’s potential as a unique art form with its own grammar. Prior to this tendency in film, composer John Cage had foregrounded silence within his 1953 composition ‘4’33’. Purging concerts of conventional musical content, he allowed the sounds from outside to come inside and become the focus of the audience’s attention.
These foundational ideas have led to a burgeoning music scene focused on environmental sound and field recording. Outlining some of the complexities between film and sound, Luke Fowler’s film cycle ‘A Grammar for Listening (parts 1-3)’ attempts to confront these contradictions through the possibilities afforded by 16mm film and digital sound recording devices. These three films, created in collaboration with sound artists Lee Patterson and Toshiya Tsunoda and composer Éric La Casa respectively, provide a series of collaborations and meditations on the issues raised, and propose a number of tentative navigations through.
All Divided Selves 9.30pm
The social and cultural revolutions of the 1960s were spearheaded by the charismatic, guru-like figure of Glasgow born psychiatrist R.D. Laing. In his now classic text ‘The Politics of Experience’ (1967), Laing argued that normality entailed adjusting ourselves to the mystification of an alienating and depersonalizing world. Thus, those society labels as ‘mentally ill’ are in fact ‘hyper-sane’ travelers, conducting an inner voyage through aeonic time. The film concentrates on archival representations of Laing and his colleagues as they struggled to acknowledge the importance of considering social environment and disturbed interaction in institutions as significant factors in the aetiology of human distress and suffering.
All Divided Selves reprises the vacillating responses to these radical views and the less forgiving responses to Laing’s latter career shift from well-recognized psychiatrist to celebrity poet. A dense, engaging and lyrical collage — Fowler weaves archival material with his own filmic observations — marrying a dynamic soundtrack of field recordings with recorded music by Éric La Casa, Jean-Luc Guionnet and Alasdair Roberts.
Luke Fowler
Luke Fowler (b. 1978) is an artist, filmmaker and musician based in Glasgow. His films, a collage of found footage and Fowler’s own recordings, have documented the work of British counter cultural figures including Scottish psychiatrist R. D. Laing and composer Cornelius Cardew. Through his collaboration with experimental musicians Toshia Tsunoda, Lee Patterson and Eric la Casa, he creates dynamic soundtracks of original compositions and field recordings for these works.
His new feature-length film ‘All Divided Selves’ is the third work to take up the legacy of radical psychiatrist R.D. Laing. It concentrates on archival representations of Laing and his colleagues as they struggled to acknowledge the importance of considering social environment as significant factors in human distress and suffering. The film premiered at Anthology Film Archive in New York in November 2011 and has been screened as part of the Berlin Film Festival this year.
The Modern Institute will be making a solo presentation of Luke’s new photographic prints at the Independent Fair in New York in March. His recent solo exhibitions include Inverleith House, Edinburgh; ‘All Divided Selves’, CCS Bard Galleries, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York; Serpentine Gallery, London; ‘A Grammar For Listening’, The Modern Institute, Glasgow; and ‘Warriors’, X Initiative, New York; Kunsthaus Zürich, Zürich. Forthcoming solo exhibitions include ‘The Poor Stockinger’ at The Hepworth, Wakefield. He participated in ‘Cornelius Cardew and the Freedom of Listening’, CAC Bretigny; ‘British Art Show 7: In The Days Of The Comet’, Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham and The Hayward Gallery, London; ‘Radical Nature’, Barbican Art Gallery, London; ‘The Associates’, DCA, Dundee; ‘What You See is Where You’re At’, The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh; Kunsthaus Zürich, Zürich; and ‘Younger than Jesus’, New Museum, New York; In 2008 he received the inaugural Derek Jarman Award.
The Modern Institute
The Modern Institute has been described by Art Review as ‘a model for galleries around the world’. Since its foundation in 1998 it has played an important role in putting Glasgow on the world art map through its association with some of the most important names in contemporary art. The gallery represents 38 artists who are regularly exhibiting internationally in museums and institutions. These include four Turner Prize winners; Martin Boyce (2011), Richard Wright (2009), Simon Starling (2005), Jeremy Deller (2004) and two further nominees; Cathy Wilkes (2008) and Jim Lambie (2005). Several of the artists have exhibited at the Venice Biennale, with Martin Boyce representing Scotland with a solo presentation in 2009.
Artists represented include: Dirk Bell, Martin Boyce, Jeremy Deller, Alex Dordoy, Urs Fischer, Kim Fisher, Luke Fowler, Henrik Håkansson, Mark Handforth, Georg Herold, Thomas Houseago, Richard Hughes, Chris Johanson, Andrew Kerr, Jim Lambie, Duncan MacQuarrie, Victoria Morton, Scott Myles, Nicolas Party, Toby Paterson, Simon Periton, Manfred Pernice, Mary Redmond, Anselm Reyle, Eva Rothschild, Monika Sosnowska, Simon Starling, Katja Strunz, Tony Swain, Spencer Sweeney, Joanne Tatham & Tom O’Sullivan, Padraig Timoney, Hayley Tompkins, Sue Tompkins, Cathy Wilkes, Michael Wilkinson, Gregor Wright, Richard Wright.
The Modern Institute: Luke Fowler Solo Presentation 3rd Floor, Independent, 548 West 22nd St, New York, NY 10011. March 8-11, 2012
MODERN INSTITUTE www.themoderninstitute.com
INDEPENDENT www.independentnewyork.com/
Artprojx promotes and screens artist’s film and video programs in the context of the cinema, working in collaboration with galleries, artists, art museums and art fairs.
