Art :: Experimental
Experimental work is the most exciting. It's about play. Artists letting go of their inhibitions, repressions, and doing what feels good, what feels right. Often it's abstract and conceptual. It's open to interpretation. The audience brings much to the work, the meaning of the art.
To Dream
Great art starts with a great vision - one based on hope, anguish, despair or any other emotion. It succeeds when the work makes someone feel something, anything. Ilana Yahav through using the fluidity of sand illustrates her imagination and dream. In the process, we get a glimpse into her inner world.
The Color Blue
In 2057, the world is a very different place - a world without color, without, without music. In this conceptual and experimental piece, different people remember different sensations, colors, feelings, and relish in their memory with sadness. One woman recounts the oldest who remembers the color blue, the color of the sky, while she struggles to remember the sky. It's a piece about appreciation of what is. Someday everything we know might be gone. It's an amazing work.
A Random Matt Chin Short: The Scissors
Matt Chin gets a new paper shredder and was giving up cutting by hand using a pair of scissors. After experiencing the neglect, the dejected scissors walked up to the window sill and attempted to throw itself into the garbage can, only to be saved by its own. This is quite funny and brilliant.
Spiders on Drugs
In this comedy and commentary on the effects of drugs, the web-building behavior of wood spiders on a variety of psycho-active drugs, such as alcohol, crack cocaine, LSD, caffeine, TSD, and more. The different chemicals were applied with a cotton swab on the legs of the spider and then observed their effect on web-building. Narrated by a male, this film is presented as a documentary of scientific research.
The Life and Death of a Pumpkin
Awarded the Best Short Film and Best Concept, 2006, Chicago Horror Film Festival, October, this film portrays the feelings and pain of a pumpkin, from the perpective of a pumpkin. The film traces the idyllic life of a pumpkin growing in the fields, to being harvest, being cut and carve and ultimately left to die.
13,000 Pick Up
Using 13,000 pieces of plastic units in various colors, red, orange, yellow, white, green, and black, towers are build over time. Watch their assembly from the parts into structures then their fall and destruction at the end. It's a commentary on the cycle of life. Interesting concept.
Worms Making Music II
Destabilized F synthesis circuit from a Yamaha PSS-470 running the lowest possible current and a worm created improvised music. As the worm slithered about on the circuit, sounds are emitted. It's a special performance piece from a worm. No worms were hurt in the process. The worm was returned to its natural habitat at the end of the experiment. Interesting idea.
I Know You Are But What Am I
This experimental film by Savvas Stavrou explores the metaphor of reflection, literally and symbolically. Themes such as identity and self discovery, life and death run through the video. It features a woman sometimes stuck in a box, pushing against the walls, or deep in contemplation. The reflection aspect is highlighted as she looks into different reflective surfaces to see her image looking back at her. A dead bird lays on the window sill while life goes on all around it. The incessant music from the piano carries the video through, giving it a sense of continuity and momentum.
Found Motion
In this series of stop motion vignettes by Eric Rivera and Stefan Benchoam, sculptures, chairs, couches move around in their space. Their interactions with each other creates a narrative that is surreal, but yet makes sense within their world. Rarely, a human figure invades the scene and the motion stops. Otherwise, the video plays in a ghostly manner, objects moving on their own, doors opening and closing by themselves.
Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase
Using artworks from 20th century artists, Joan C. Gratz animates artworks from 20th century artists into one surreal, fluid narrative. One artist's work morphs into another in a seamless manner. Gratz creates a dialog between them. It's a commentary on art history throughout the centuries. It talks about influences - how artists inform and affect each other's work. Even the title of the video makes reference to art history, to Marcel DuChamp's famous "Nude Descending a Staircase," 1912. Paintings by Magritte, Picasso, Vincent Van Gogh, Matisse, Egon Schiele and others all come alive in this video. Very well done.
