film

'The Uncertain Archive' at Zumzeig Cine (Barcelona), co-presented by Laboratorio Reversible

Still from 'Jennifer, Where are you?" (1981) by Leslie Thornton

Still from 'Jennifer, Where are you?" (1981) by Leslie Thornton

January 30th, 2018
9pm

Zumzeig Cine
Calle Béjar, 53, Barcelona

Curated by Alison Nguyen
Co-presented by Lab Reversible

http://zumzeigcine.coop/es/portfolio/blitz-8-alison-nguyen-ii/

A screening series of film and video artists whose work subverts the codes of mass media, often appropriating found images. These pieces question the technology that forms our perception of gender, authority, space and history. 

Works include:  Jennifer, Where Are You? by Leslie Thornton, The Truth by LJ Frezza, Domestic Landscape: Eclipse by Sabrina Ratté, Funhouse by Scott Kiernan, The Time That Remains by Soda_Jerk, Danse by Brian Murphy, Beirut Outtakes by Peggy Ahwesh,  Dessert-Disaster by Alison Nguyen,  Eden 2.0 (Episode 1) by Ololade Adeniyi, No Sell Out ... or i wnt 2b th ultimate commodity / machine (Malcolm X Pt. 2) by X-PRZ,  bilateral by Lily Jue Sheng and Trans Trans (Transformers Transformed) by Bradley Eros and Tim Geraghty.

'Burn' at Zumzeig Cine (Barcelona), co-presented by Crater Lab

Burn_Zumzeig_01.jpg

http://zumzeigcine.coop/es/portfolio/blitz-8-alison-nguyen-i-2/
http://crater-lab.org/burn-alison-nguyen-en-zumzeig-cinema-2/

"Burn" is a screening series of filmmakers and video artists who use forms of appropriation, dematerialization and manipulation of electronic signals in their works. These pieces subvert the visual codes of mass media , repositioning materials such as commercials, pornography and Hollywood movies. By burning contemporary archives, these artists create new texts that challenge our way of seeing the dominant social constructions.

We can see burn (or the second law of Thermodynamics) by Bradley Eros,  Escales by Sabrina Ratté,  The Neutral Zone by LJ Frezza,  Eden 2.0 (Intro, Ep. 1) by Ololade Adeniyi, you can't plan a perfect day sometimes it just happens by Alison Nguyen,  Point, Line, Plane by Lily Jue Sheng & Antonia Kuo,  Beirut Outtakesby Peggy Ahwesh,  Enduring Ornament by Josh Lewis and MM Serra,  Palaces by Sarah Halpern,  Syntax Workers (Cues) by Scott Kiernan and Astro Black: Armageddon in Effect by Soda_Jerk.
 

Alison Nguyen / Monica Savirón at Microscope Gallery (NYC)

Still from 'Dessert-Disaster' (2017) by Alison Nguyen

Still from 'Dessert-Disaster' (2017) by Alison Nguyen

Monday November 13, 7:30pm
YES: Alison Nguyen / Monica Savirón
Artists in person

Microscope presents the first 2017-18 edition of our emerging artist series YES with a screening of film and video works by Alison Nguyen and Monica Savirón. Both Brooklyn-based artists’ bodies of works include 16mm films and videos that are situated within the tradition of “found footage” or “appropriation”, terms that fall short of conveying the painstaking processes of “seeking” each of them undertakes in selecting their imagery from sources including vast archives of daily newspapers, 16mm film vaults, and the web.

Nguyen, in her most recent video “Dessert-Disaster”, draws attention to visual trends and similarities between imagery used in the advertising of dessert products and that used in the documentation of natural and artificial disasters. Through the juxtaposition of the two in split screen, she reveals the TV and cinematic inspirations for dizzying movements of chocolate and other visually striking manipulations of otherwise inert candy bars. Similarly, in “you can’t plan a perfect day sometimes it just happens”, Nguyen culls brief sequences of camera lens flare from American commercials to reflect upon their function of “visual shorthands for authenticity and spirituality used in white-dominated mass media”. Earlier works by the artist in the program – shot on Super 8mm and 16mm film – are abstractions and more formal investigations of light and color.

Savirón’s works in the program – with the exception of her first piece “To Begin With” (2012) – mostly draw from existing still photograph that is repurposed and given new life within the filmstrip. For instance, in “Broken Tongue”, which “pays homage to the diaspora of the different waves of migration” to the US, the artist rephotographed images printed in the New Year’s Days issues of The New York Times, from its first publication in 1851 until 2013. Her latest work “Answer Print” – a term used to describe a print struck to preview the image and sound of a movie before final printing – is a perpetually decaying 16mm film consisting of deteriorated copies of 9 separate movies as well as anonymous film rushes and camera tests. With its fading red hues and accumulation of other imperfections, the work despite its title is unable to “answer” the question of how it will look or sound at any of its future projections.

Nguyen and Savirón will be in attendance and available for Q&A following the screening.

More info here.

 

The Whitney: Dreamlands Expanded

For the 10th and final event of “Dreamlands: Expanded“, a series of expanded cinema events organized by Microscope in collaboration with the Whitney Museum of American Art as part of the exhibition “Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905-2016“,  I will be a part of a new multi-projection and sound performance The Owl Flies at Twilight composed by the Optipus collective & orchestra in its largest configuration to date featuring 28 artists.

 

Projections in various formats by Bradley Eros, Lary Seven, Katherine Bauer, Rachael Guma, Genevieve H-K, Kenneth Zoran Curwood, Joel Schlemowitz, Tim Geraghty, Sarah Halpern, Simon Liu, Alison Nguyen, Lily Jue Sheng, Antonia Kuo, Gill Arno, Scott Kiernan, Shona Masarin & Andrew Hurst.

Sound organized by Mia Theodoratus (strings), Michael Evans (percussion), Victoria Keddie(electronics), with: Richard Sylvarnes, Gabriel Guma, Rachelle Rahme, Zach Layton, Laura Ortman, David Grollman, Kevin Shea, Jake Naussbaum, Rachael Guma.

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Optipus is a nomadic group of chameleon artists, cine-scientists in search of a laboratory, shape-shifting according to site-specific requirements. The group embraces the ephemeral cinema of unfixed forms and open composition. Optipus’s members emerge in myriad collaborations, producing works and events, soundtracks and invented instruments, video edits and film loops, and expanded cinema and immersive installations. Optipus has been previously seen at various venues including The Kitchen, Anthology Film Archives, Participant Inc., New York University, Microscope Gallery, Bobby Redd Project Space (The Church), Millennium Film Workshop and others.

Satellite Miami

Two of my moving image works will be a part of Doppelgänger Projects' presentation 'Invocations' at Satellite Miami:

Satellite Miami Art Fair
The Parisian Hotel
1510 Collins Ave
Miami Beach, FL 33139

December 1 - December 4, 2016

Featured Artists: Janine Biunno, Ida Gavois, Alison Nguyen, Laura Splan, and Cave Collective

An inherent essence of the human race is its capability to communicate and create new methods for translating ideas and experiences. In turn, as a species, our communication patterns evolve and develop. We are now host to over 6000 spoken languages and numerous written forms. With the onset of coding, SMS, emoji, gifs, and stickers in the digital age, we have now constructed an era of Neo-Hieroglyphics.

Invocations delves into the deconstruction of forms and movement to cultivate new meaning and space. Does the refinement of geometric systems forge a different kind of understanding? Does the formulation of contemporary rituals, binding technology and basic primal urges, summon new dialects to comprehend?