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