Films on Art
TAP studio resident Sebastian Di Trolio will project a selection of 16mm films from his on-site archive which profile (primarily) Canadian artists through first hand interviews, exploring their processes and revealing the passions with which they infuse in their artistry.
This free event is being presented in conjunction with 'Culture Days', taking place in TAP's black box theatre with one hour screenings commencing at 2 pm, 4 pm and 6 pm
PROGRAMs
2pm
Two films about uncompromising artists in their twilight years.
PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS AN OLD LADY
Gail Singer | Canada | 1982 | 27 minutes
Paraskeva Clark, artist, socialist, feminist, is her own woman at her own cost. This film is a cameo of an irascible and oftentimes touching artist whose work has won her a place in exhibitions and private collections. Born in Russia in 1898, she eventually married a Canadian and moved to Toronto. Because her canvases reflect a strong social conscience, she had to struggle hard to earn a place in the nation's ultra-conservative galleries. – National Film Board of Canada
GRANDMA’S BOTTLE VILLAGE: THE ART OF TRISSA PRISBEY
Allie Light & Irving Saraf | USA | 1982 | 28 minutes
Grandma Tressa Prisbrey built her first bottle house to hold her 17,000 pencils. This was the beginning of The Bottle Village in Simi Valley, Calif. At 84, Grandma Prisbrey is a vivacious guide to her brilliant houses crammed with objects scavenged from the county dump. At her wittiest-she sings, jokes with her older sister, and combs through the dump. The film is an exploration of Grandma Prisbrey's creativity, pizzazz and sense of the absurd.The film lovingly documents the interiors of 15 of her houses, including Cleopatra's Bedroom, The Round House, as well as the marvelous sidewalk mosaics -- all masterpieces of assemblage art and tapestries of artifacts from the first half of the 20th century. – folkstreams . net
4PM
VISIONS: Artists and the Creative Process
AN INTRODUCTION
TVOntario | 1983 | 30 minutes
Five Canadian artists introduce the series by describing the creative process and their view of the national art scene. The artists are Christopher Pratt, Mary Pratt, Hilda Woolnough, Bruno Bobak & Paterson Ewen. – TVO
CHALLENGING DIRECTIONS
TVOntario | 1983 | 30 minutes
A look at how three contemporary talents: Noel Harding, John Scott, and Michael Snow - challenge conventional definitions of art. Harding presents art as experience by building a three-dimensional landscape indoors; Scott uses crude political imagery; and Snow explores new conceptions of time and space. – TVO
6pm
Diaries, Notes & Sketches: A one hour program of mid-century experimental films by visual artists whose practices expand to the moving image.
NOTEBOOK
Marie Menken | USA | 1963 | b&w/colour | silent | 11 minutes
These are too tiny or too obvious for comment, but one or two are my dearest children. – Marie Menken
It is a very personal film which she keeps adding to ... a masterpiece of filmic fragments, only shown once, but wow! – P. Adams Sitney
ANALOGIES NO. 1
Jim Davis | USA | 1953 | colour | sound | 10 minutes
Davis departs from his studio to discover in nature new and exciting forms of light imagery. The reflections of such familiar objects as trees, clouds, and buildings become, through the magic of extreme close-ups and highly inventive camerawork, strangely beautiful and provocative shapes. It is with them that the mind recognizes analogies drawn between these patterns and the abstractions which Davis then creates back in his studio. – Film Images Catalog, 1974
LIFELINES
Ed Emshwiller | USA | 1960 | colour | sound | 7 minutes
A combination of animated line drawings, abstract expressionist paintings, and live photography of a nude model. A play on the title (living lines, life model, procreation and hand life line). Music by Teiji Ito.
R34
Jack Chambers | Canada | 1967 | b&w/colour | sound | 27 minutes
Begun with a softly focused series of close-ups, London artist Greg Curnoe is unfurled in an impressionistic hue that gives way to a cataloguing of his Schwitters-like collages. Chambers proceeds with a strict attention to rhythm, chaining together recycled fragments in a round dance that swings in and out of closing doors, image winking out of darkness, the products of Curnoe's labour intertwined with his own cooking, combing, taking out the garbage. His montage is not merely content to show an artist at work, but actively mimes the very work it is witness to. … Additional sound is provided by the Nihilist Spasm Band. – Mike Hoolboom
Film print provided by: The London Public Library