http://www.nottinghamvisualarts.net/writing/feb-10/ian-breakwell-elusive-states-happiness

Ian Breakwell: walking Man

http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/chrisofili/default.shtm

Chris Ofili's exhibition at Tate Britain contains some highly provocative paintings. We will visit the show when we are in London. This video sees Ofili contemplating his own work; how growing up in Britain in the 70's and 80's has affected his progress and where he sees himself in the future. In 1998 he won the Turner Prize and in 2003 he represented Britain at the Venice Biennale.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5wHMgTPF-s

Contextual Studies 4/2/10

JAN SVANKMAJER

'Shock and incomprehension are probably the first reactions to the films of Jan Svankmajer. The imagery is violent, witty and disturbing in its transformations and juxtapositions of objects, materials and beings. The humour is black and the editing rhythm's sharp and remorseless. Moreover, for Westerners, the films don't fit readily into any tradition, genre or filmic category:to describe Svankmajer simply as an animator would be misleading. His use of puppets and trick photography signals roots and references and an aesthetic that, at first, are deeply perplexing. The work induces a kind of critical and cultural trauma, and reveals a technical brilliance and soaring of imagination rare in cinema today.'

Michael O'Pray

(Monthly Film Bulletin no.630, July 1986)

Today's session will feature the Czech Surrealist filmaker Jan Svankmajer and the German animator Lotte Reiniger. Both taking the art of collage to extreme lengths.

Svankmajer is a prolific filmmaker who has made a steady stream of films from 1964 up until the present day. He is often named as being a big influence on today's subversive filmmakers Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam, The brother Quay, and Shane Acker. (amongst others) One of the films I am going to show today 'Dimensions of Dialogue' (1980) was selected by Terry Gilliam as one of the '10 best animated films of all time.'

Svankmajer's films are often characterised by their exaggerated sounds, fast motion sequences, and stop-motion animation. His references weave through poetry and literature, and his obsessions are evident: effigies, disembowelment, bodily ruptures, cannibalism, disgorgement, surrealist lists and a macabre wit. Not too distant from Max Ernst's collages of fiendish and delectable nightmares, and reminiscent of the American surrealist Joseph Cornell's 'boxes'.

In 1972 Svankmajer was banned by the communist authorities from making films and many of his later films were also suppressed. As a result he didn't really come to prominence in the West until the 1980's.

LOTTE REINIGER

(1899-1981)

Altogether Reiniger has made nearly 60 films.

From the first, Reiniger was attracted to timeless fairy-tale stories for her animations. Cinderella and The Sleeping Beauty were among her earliest subjects. She made the specific animation technique of silhouette animation, her own. Taking the ancient art of shadow-plays, as perfected predominantly in China and Indonesia, and adapting it superbly for cinema.

The avant-garde artist and filmmaker Hans Richter was a life long friend and wrote of her that 'she belonged to the avant-garde as far as independent production and courage were concerned' even though the spirit of her work perhaps harked back to an early innocent age.

Her work seems particularly relevant today with the explosion of artists using card cut out techniques in their work, and significantly with the new exhibition of Afro Modern which has just opened at Tate Liverpool. Expressly influencing 'cut out' artists Kara Walker and Ellen Gallagher.

At the end of the Contextual studies session you are invited to post a comment about the fims shown.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UI0ciYJKBxQ&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UI0ciYJKBxQ&feature=related William Burroughs and Brion Gysin popularised the concept of cut-ups in the late 1950's and early 1960's but the action can be traced back as far as the 1920's when the Surrealists first played with the idea of "consequences" when Tristan Tzara offered to create a poem on the spot by pulling words randomly from a hat to build the poem from the act of chance. David Bowie and Kurt Cobaine revered Burroughs and quoted him as an influence on their writint. Cobaine recorded with Burroughs in fact.