RP14 Video Series
Rapid Pulse International Performance Art Festival is pleased to present video programming at the Nightingale, a microcinema in Chicago dedicated to presenting avant-garde film and video work.
From June 05-14, the Nightingale will feature several evenings of performance art-based videos. Rapid Pulse aims to showcase a vast range of styles and forms of performance art, especially those that are innovative and experimental; the video series component of the festival does just this. The inclusion of performance work made for the camera expands the boundaries between what is or can be considered performance art. Curated by Giana Gambino, Joseph Ravens, Steven L Bridges and Julie Laffin.
Frédéric Moffet (Canada/US) | Patty Chang (US) | Dani Frid Rossi (Brazil/US) | Kristan Saloky (US) | Mandy Cano Villalobos (US) | Zhang Huan (China) | Con.Tatto (Italy) | Francesca Fini (Italy) | Teri Frame (US) | Vincent Tiley (US) | Armando Quieroz (Brazil)| Annette Arlander (Finland) | Peter Campus (US) | Jacobus Capone (Austrailia) | Chelsea Knight &Amp; Mark Tribe (US) | Sarah Trouche (France) | Scott N Andrew (US) | Dynasty Handbag (US) | Hayley Morgenstern (US) | Diego Ramirez (Mexico/Australia) | Reverend Billy (Us) | Esther Baker-Tarpaga (US) | Julie Barbosa Landois (US) | Endam Nihan (Turkey) | Tori Wrånes (Norway) | Casey Jane Ellison &Amp; Jayne Goldsmith (US) | Bffaeaetddup (US) | Miloushka Bokma (Netherlands) | Marnie Weber (US) | Nabeela Vega (Bangladesh/US)
THUR JUNE 5: Captive Anatomies
Frédéric Moffet (Canada/US) | Patty Chang (US) | Dani Frid Rossi (Brazil/US) | Kristan Saloky (US) | Mandy Cano Villalobos (US) | Zhang Huan (China)
“Captive Anatomies” focuses on work that looks to the body as a site of investigation. A dialectal tension between the passivity of the body and its dynamic potential is evident in this series of works. Dani Frid Rossi, Frederic Moffet and Zhang Huan’s videos require the cooperation of a community of persons who allow the artist to use their bodies as willing participants. Mandy Cano Villalobos, Patty Chang and Kristan Saloky take a more intimate look at the body and its visceral components with the absence of an other. Villalobos and Moffet explore the significance of sacrifice, Rossi and Saloky challenge the voyeur, while Chang and Huan expose the sentient experience of inhabiting a body.
FRI JUNE 6: Loss of Self (Control)
CON.TATTO (Italy) | FRANCESCA FINI (Italy) | TERI FRAME (US) | VINCENT TILEY (US) | ARMANDO QUIEROZ (Brazil)
“Loss of Self (Control)” includes artists who engage materials, technology, and actions to alter or explore, and threaten or expose the self. Armando Quieroz, Teri Frame, and Con.tatto mask their faces with paint, clay and latex to symbolically distort personal identity in a quest for truth. Francesca Fini and Vincent Tiley rely on an interaction with materials to aid in the exploration of their bodies. Quieroz and Tiley relinquish their control by allowing a machine or insects to navigate their anatomy. Con.tatto and Fini’s performances produce a doubled embodiment. Fini’s hands produce this doubling effect through a formal exploration of materials, whereas Con.tatto more noticeably question the role of the other and dissect the notion of individuality. Teri Frame uses clay to transform her “self” into a controversial art historical persona, disposing of her corporeal identity and taking on that of an other.
SUN JUNE 8: Remote Frames and Insular Edges
Annette Arlander (Finland) | Peter Campus (US) | Jacobus Capone (Austrailia) | Chelsea Knight &Amp; Mark Tribe (US) | Sarah Trouche (France)
“Remote Frames and Insular Edges” explores actions performed in remote locations that evoke a sense of commitment, nomadism, and transformation. Annette Arlander visits and re-visits the same site multiple days over time to create a record or imprint of her interactions with a particular site. Similarly, Jacobus Capone commits to investigating the perimeter of an island, experiencing its landscape in a way that tests his endurance. Chelsea Knight and Mark Tribe use a secluded forest as a backdrop for dancers to re-interpret militia gestures, exploring notions of violence and survival, while Peter Campus reveals solitary meditations on life and death by allowing the viewer to peer into a private interior landscape. Sarah Trouche inhabits a barren landscape appearing like a painting, yet her gaze breaks the fourth wall and invites the viewer into the remote surrounding. The video edits in this series reveal not only the transient encounter between artist and environment, but it also constructs its own landscape- one that is inherently aware of the frames edges.
THU JUNE 12: Queering Fiction
Scott N Andrew (US) | Dynasty Handbag (US) | Hayley Morgenstern (US) | Diego Ramirez (Mexico/Australia)
“Queering Fiction” features videos containing elements of the fantastical: Fairy tales, superhuman powers, other worlds, unusual creatures, and wild imaginings abound. Remaking the world, by removing the traditional gendering lens, is often the crux of the matter. Entering into new psychical realms, we are led into inventive scenarios by Dynasty Handbag, Hayley Morgenstein, Diego Ramirez, and Scott N Andrew. Scott N Andrew and Dynasty Handbag create fantastical environments that explore violence: Andrew’s world tests his characters survival skills, whereas Dynasty Handbag exposes the inner turmoil of a drone operator and the trail of his destruction. Morgenstern reinterprets the classic Snow White narrative with a contemporary spin on consumption, compulsivity and exhaustion. And Ramirez creates an implausible, yet visually credible, part human, part vegetable character that enacts wandering gestures of cultural identity through its symbolism. These artists seek our engagement through the construction of new territories and highly charged visual language, composed of special effects, dreamy imagery, and filmic wonder
FRI JUNE 13: Counter-Textual
Reverend Billy (US) | Esther Baker-Tarpaga (US) | Julie Barbosa Landois (US) | Endam Nihan (Turkey) | Tori Wrånes (Norway) | Casey Jane Ellison &Amp; Jayne Goldsmith (US)
“Counter- Textual” focuses on videos that subvert spoken word in a myriad of ways, whether it be through music, movement or text. The voice is an essential instrument in this series which exposes each artist’s’ personal ethos and directs it to the camera. The messages encroach on topics pertaining to politics, race, and religion, and the ‘confessional’ becomes a language of cultural critique. Reverend Billy subverts religious rhetoric for his own political agenda, whereas Julie Barbosa Landois perverts a traditional religious song for the purpose of cultural critique. Esther Baker-Tarpaga integrates movement and text in a private experience with her young daughter to critique racial and body politics. Tori Wrånes takes the opposite approach, by deconstructing language to pure sound, reliant on her performing body. Casey Jane Ellison & Jayne Goldsmith emulate amature user-generated content often found on youtube, to expose the mundane details of everyday life. Endam Nihan follows suit with a video diary that details her daily experience while traveling, and also expresses her disappointment with the art world.
SAT JUNE 14: Disjointed Realities
Bffaeaetddup (US) | Miloushka Bokma (Netherlands) | Marnie Weber (US) | Nabeela Vega (Bangladesh/US)
“Disjointed Realities” focuses on video works that contain and expose layered realities. Marnie Weber’s work follows doppelganger ventriloquists on a quest for emancipation to the open sea. Miloushka Bokma divides past and present realities between two central female characters to create a perceptual frame inclusive of both, as one transitions into the other. BFFAEAETDDUP addresses the duality and authenticity of constructed identity and its intimate presentation through communication. Nabeela Vega uses a split screen to create tension between simultaneous actions as the artist adorns, effects and purges fluid from her body in a ritual of cleansing and sacrifice. Though these artists work in divergent ways, the intention of video edits, layered imagery, and the juxtaposition of narratives construct disjointed realities.