April
14 , Thursday, 7:30PM,
2005
History of American Avant-Garde:
Ed Emshwiller
Born
in 1925, Ed Emshwiller studied graphic design
at the University of Michigan and L'Ecole des
Beaux Arts in Paris. By the late 60s Emshwiller
was working as a science fiction illustrator,
and had established his place in the American
avant-garde cinema with such works as Relativity
(1966) and Image, Flesh and Voice (1969). His
early films featured collaborations with dancers
and choreographers—a theme he carried
over into his videoworks. Emshwiller was among
the first artists-in-residence at the TV Lab
at WNET, where he produced the groundbreaking
Scape-mates (1972). Sunstone (1979) was made
over a period of eight months at the New York
Institute of Technology. Emshwiller passed away
in 1990 and an extensive collection of his work
is housed by Anthology Film Archives.
Lifelines
7min, 16mm, 1960
Music
by Teiji Ito. A combination of animated line
drawings with live photography of a nude model.
A play on the title (living lines, life model,
procreation and hand life line).
Relativity
38min, 16mm, 1966
"[A]
beautifully photographed color montage of shots;
insect, animal, man and galaxy; a sobering antidote
to the orgy of subjectivism going on elsewhere."
-- Vincent Canby, The New York Times
"The
artist's search for the meaning of his own
existence is never-ending and takes many forms.
Ed Emshwiller's remarkable epic, RELATIVITY,
continues this exploration with extraordinary
frankness and rare technical skill. The sequence
which symbolically portrays a woman at the
moment of sexual climax is one of the most
beautiful in the literature of film."
-- Willard Van Dyke
"RELATIVITY
is a marvelously sensual film ... it is, I
have no doubt, a masterpiece." -- Richard
Whitehall, LA Free Press
Thanatopsis
6min, 16mm, 1962
An
expression of internal anguish. The confrontation
of a man and his torment. Juxtaposed against
his external composure are images of a woman
and lights in distortion, with tension heightened
by the sounds of power saws and a heartbeat.
Totem
16min, 16mm, 1963
Made
in collaboration with Alvin Nikolais, featuring
Murray Louis and Gladys Ballin with the Nikolais
Dance Company. Electronic score by Nikolais.
A filmic interpretation of a modern dance ballet
by Alvin Nikolais. Earth, fire, water and primordial
mysteries in a cine-dance.
Film
with Three Dancers 20min, 16mm, 1970
A
cine-dance film featuring the dancers Carolyn
Carlson, Emery Hermans and Bob Beswick. The
trio, first in leotards, then in blue jeans,
then naked, pass through rituals of movement.
They are shown in stylized, "naturalistic"
and abstract images accompanied by stylized,
naturalistic and abstract sounds. A series
of ways of seeing the dancers. "Best
(underground) picture of the year." --
Camille J. Cook, Chicago Sunday Sun-Times
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