August 6th, 2010.
The Museum of Contemporary Art will celebrate the 10th anniversary of Optic Nerve, its annual festival of short films and videos by artists from South Florida, with a screening of its 12th rendition on Friday, August 6th at 7:00 and 9:00 p.m. Optic Nerve XII will feature 22 films by 21 artists, all less than five minutes in length, selected from an open call for submissions. The festival is part of MOCA’s ongoing effort to provide new opportunities for South Florida artists. Since the inception of Optic Nerve in 2000, over 150 artists have been featured; many of whom publicly presented their work for the first time in this MOCA program.
Starbucks Coffee Company, sponsor of Optic Nerve since 2006, will provide funds for the purchase of one of the films for MOCA’s permanent collection. The selection will be announced by MOCA Executive Director Bonnie Clearwater at the conclusion of the first screening. Audience members will vote for their favorite film by ballot.
Jurors for Optic Nerve XII were Anthony Allegro, Professor, Motion Pictures, School of Communications, University of Miami; Don Chauncey, former Director for the Lynn and Louis Wolfson Florida Moving Image Archives at Miami-Dade College; Bonnie Clearwater, Executive Director and Chief Curator, Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami; Rod Faulds, University Galleries Director, Florida Atlantic University School of the Arts; and filmmaker and artist Juan Carlos Zaldivar.
Optic Nerve Film Selection:
3PQ, You’re Going to Carry that Weight, 4:52 min
In this film, artist collective 3PQ seeks to transform a static landscape into a fluid real time continuum, a sort of momentary bliss of genuine discovery and refusal where lines erase, transverse or scale infinitely as pixels on a screen.
Carlos Llerena Aguirre, Valor Y Fe 1:43 min
Faith, courage and loyalty are referenced in street dogs from all over the world. The film creates a contrast between the stray dogs and sacred altars as symbols of religious passage. The altars depict Gauchito Antonio Gil, a saint from Corrientes, North of Argentina. The score details the life of San Jose de San Martin, liberator of South America.
Jeff Calvert and Ran Dolf, Mustache Chronicles 1:30 min
Inspired by dated maps and atlases, this work is short meditation on modern man and his dilemmas. With an ephemeral style of animation and narration, linked with linear continuity, the artwork suggests an infinite timeline of abstract events, suggesting progress and belief are timeless and ruthless attributes to human nature.
Autumn Casey, Getting Rid of All My Shoes 4:16 min
In this film, the artist liberates herself from what she is supposedly attached to by displacing her entire shoe collection throughout her neighborhood until she is barefoot.
Charles Chace, Amplified Proof 3:11 min
The inspiration of this video centers on an immature and unrealistic desire to elicit artist Tracey Emin’s attention. The structure of the video is based on traditional song writing. The limited images of the muse (Tracey Emin), creates a nonsensical dialog which is enhanced by the use of music, sound effects, voiceovers, and various colorful scrolling texts.
Vanessa Cruz, Eve as a Young Girl 2:09 min; Lazarus 1:20 min
The mythical and allegorical world of storytelling is at the heart of these animated films. Ancient stories are told through a modern sense of the visual.
Scott Draft, Creation: Apocalypse 4:41 min
Creation through Apocalypse is a pun on the Discovery Channel. Just as all language contains dialectic malfunctions, the voice of the video is encoded with a limited worldview. It is an attempt to explain the unexplainable and that the devil is in the details.
Shane Eason, Works of the Flesh: Secons Study 5:00 min
The film is the second in a series of studies on body modification and manipulation through a number of medical practices and procedures. The footage is found Super 8 film, circa late 1960’s, which existed originally in medical institutions and universities as instructional films for medical students.
Erwin Georgi, Lines 1:50 min
Lines is a study of light and symmetry, showing how light is perceived and captured into living energy. The result is a living piece of light movement. Music by Vitalic.
Moira Holohan, Look at the Sign 2:17 min
This video animation with found sound includes the following processes: studio performances, green screen, video montage and drawing and painted animation.
Dee Hood, Believe 4:22 min
This video explores ideas about belief. The artist entered the word “believe” on Twitter to explore the common use of the word with fascinating results. The scrolling text shows the bizarre range of what we believe.
Lew Lautin, Paris: A Ride on Le Metro 3:22 min
The artist offers a crazy, zany fun-filled ride on the world famous Paris Le Metro, a journey unlike any other.
Susan Lee-Chun, Let’s Suz-ercise! (Chicago-Style) 3:12 min
This film addresses notions of authenticity identity and perception. A faux entity “The Suz” is a conglomeration of three alter egos that embody the polarizing impacts of race and identity politics – Sue (assimilation), Sioux (independence) and Su (mediation).
Justin H. Long, In Search of the Miercoles 1:45 min
Rather than following in the footsteps of conceptual artist Bas Jan Ader’s search for the Miraculous ultimate end-all performance, the artist seeks a little piece of paradise on a Wednesday.
Juan Maristany, Leak :57 min
Leak is an abstract 3D animation dealing with disgust and powerlessness. The creature is the focus of an internal rage amplified and the feeling of trying to personify an insurmountably huge opponent or a daunting, non changeable situation
Jillian Mayer, Scenic Jogging 1 min
“Now here you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place ” The Red Queen.
Kristina Rodriguez, The Ecstasy of St. Theresa 1:14 min
This piece is inspired by St. Theresa of Avila’s recount of a visitation from a seraph which inspired the Bernini sculpture The Ecstasy of St. Theresa.
David Rohn, Construction one 5 min
Construction is a short and personal rumination on fantasy and dress-up for adults who still like to play the way they may have as kids.
Emerson Rosenthal, Pseudocoma 2:36 min
This is a video collage inspired by Orwell’s bittersweet couplet “Under the Spreading Chestnut tree, I sold you and you sold me”
Barron Sherer, Wall Street Neu! 3:08 min
This film footage is an unedited portion of a 35mm to a 16mm reduction print of a popular feature film from the 1980’s. It is projected in its original 16mm format with music on CD.
Juan Carlos Zaldivar, Horror (Horror Sickness) 4:38 min
Mal “Les Chants de Maldoror” has been cited by many surrealist artists as their main source of inspiration (Salvador Dalí, Jean Coteau). This short film is an attempt at drawing a parallel to Ducasse’s social and moral commentary at the end of the 19th century by questioning contemporary definition of the moral boundaries guiding our creation of digital content.
Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA)
770 NE 125th Street
North Miami, FL 33161
305.893.6211
www.mocanomi.org
Be the first to comment