Bruce Connor's Eve Ray Forever

Miami Art Museum. Through Nov 11th, 2007.

Miami Art Museum. Miami MuseumsMiami Art Museum is currently presenting the exhibition Eve Ray Forever by Bruce Connor curated by MAM Senior Curator Peter Boswell. With its lightening-fast editing uniting fragments of pre-existing films and scores from popular music, Bruce Connor’s Eve Ray Forever shows why he is known as the godfather of the music video. Eve Ray Forever is a new video adaptation of a three-screen 8 mm Conner film from 1965, Ray Three Screen. The center screen in Eve Ray Forever is a video transfer of Cosmic Ray. On the two flanking monitors, portions of Cosmic Ray have been re-assembled with additional vintage footage. Because the videos are programmed to repeat automatically, and since each video runs a different length, Eve Ray Forever presents an ever-changing juxtaposition of images, never the same twice.

Bruce Conner is a San Francisco-based artist and filmmaker who has achieved legendary status since he first began showing his work in the late 1950s. His early artworks consisted of three-dimensional assemblages of cast-off objects, ranging from pure detritus to outmoded clothing and costume jewelry found in second-hand stores. Conner made his first film, titled A Movie, in 1958. Like his assemblages, this 16 mm film was made entirely from pre-existing material, primarily newsreel compilations and condensed versions of B films intended for the home market. With its lightning fast editing and absurd collisions of disparate scenes, A Movie became an instant classic.  Conner has produced some thirty films since that time, usually running between three and fifteen minutes in length.

Miami Art Museum. 101 West Flagler Street. Miami, FL 33130. Ph: 305.375.3000. www.miamiartmuseum.org.

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