Gorging Limpet @ TDC Next Week

Gorging Limpet, the ongoing sound-film-video-performance project by Karen Power and me, will enter its third stage with a week-long residency at Corcadorca's Theatre Development Centre at Triskel Arts Centre, Cork, next week. This will culminate in a public performance with Q&A at 6pm on Friday May 30th.

More details here:

http://www.theatredevelopmentcentre.com/site/?ai1ec_event=gorging-limpet&instance_id=3215

Langan/Le Cain Event at Microscope, NY

Delighted to announce that Microscope Gallery in Brooklyn, New York, will be hosting a screening of work by Vicky and me next Monday, May 12th.

Full details here.

The programme is:

Evening Ascent
The Mongolian Barbecue
Background
Hereunder
Dirt
Tangled And Far

It Came From Kuchar

An 8mm manifesto by George Kuchar from 1964. Thanks to Daniel Fitzpatrick for bringing it to our attention at the lovely Super-8 Festival he and Dennis Kenny organised yesterday.

Yes, 8 mm. is a tool of defense in this society of mechanized corruption because through 8 mm. and its puny size we come closer to the dimensions of the atom.

We in this modern world of geological dormanticity are now experiencing an evolution evolving around minutenocities. We no longer think big except in the realm of nuclear bombardment, and therefore it is not unusual to find human beings with little things. Eight mm. is one of these little things, but 8 mm. becomes enormous when light from a projector bulb illuminates to a great dimension the abnormalities of the psychotic.

In the hands of a potential pervert, this medium becomes like a sculpture of clay with a base of yeast. Sprinkle a few smatters of liquid upon this sculpture and it will blow up and expand to startling and gargantuan proportions. But, as you will see, the clay shell that envelopes the overall piece of work will crack and make dirt everywhere.

The inner beauty of the work will be revealed while at the same time the film-maker will crack and eventually commit suicide. Looking upon the face of one’s own evil is enough to bring the sting of acid to an esophagus that has previously experienced only buttermilk.

That 8 mm. will become avant-garde is a contagious disease-breeder because we are all avant-garde to the point of annihilation, and only when we face the after-effects of total deformity can we then think more clearly and cry because we couldn’t concentrate on moral isolation.

Who are we to ask whether 8 mm. will be the avant-garde of the future when only God and the Vatican know for sure? Moral issues of this nature should never be left for the filthy hands of the beatnik to twist into pretzels of degeneracy. Let the beatnik and the frustrated executive twist 8mm. film into his own image and thereby give others a chance to sniff the world of narcotics and total spiritual breakdown.

Having worked with 8 mm. for twelve years, I have seen what it can do to a person. The creative intellect undergoes a great revolt and the bars of restraint are ripped from the casement of sanity until everything is a whirlpool of incandescent pudding. Eight mm. has taught me to think more clearly and to express myself in direct terms. Like my religion, I was born into 8 mm. because my aunt had loaned me her movie camera and then my mother bought me one for Christmas. Now I’m going to make a 16 mm. picture called Corruption of the Damned, and I’m making it in 16mm. because I can’t make it in 7 mm. Therefore I’m going up instead of down, which has been the usual trend in my life of wanton pleasures. I enjoyed working in 8 mm. and I’m enjoying 16 mm. and if both were taken from me I’d enjoy vegetating because a life of stagnation is one of disease and only through disease can we realize what sickness is.

TANGLED AND FAR @ Mind in the Flesh

Tangled And Far, the most recent collaboration by Vicky Langan and me, will be screened on loop during 'Mind in the Flesh, Female Bodies in Contemporary Performance', an upcoming symposium focusing on female bodies in contemporary performance at Dance Limerick featuring performances, workshops and talks. More details here.

The Great Cinema Magician

A few days ago, I posted about an upcoming album of previously unreleased music by Frans Zwartjes that is coming out on the Purge label soon. The album will be launched with a special screening event at London's ICA. A short text of mine has been published on the ICA website in connection with this event:

https://www.ica.org.uk/blog/frans-zwartjes-great-cinema-magician