As the cinematic experience becomes subsumed into ubiquitous technologies of seeing, contemporary artworks lift the cinematic from the immateriality of the film screen, separating it into its physical components within the gallery space. How do film theorists read these reformulations of the cinematic medium and their critique of what it is and has been? Theorizing Cinema through Contemporary Art: Expanding Cinema considers artworks that incorporate, restage, and re-present cinema's configurations of space, experience, presence/absence, production and consumption, technology, myth, perception, event, and temporality, thereby addressing the creation, appraisal, and evolution of film theory as channeled through contemporary art. Taking film theory as a blueprint for the moving image, and juxtaposing it with artworks that render cinema as a material object, this book unfolds a complex relationship between a theory and a practice that have often been seen as virtually incompatible, heightening our understanding of each and, more pertinently, their interactions.
- Cover
- Table of Contents
- Foreword: Courtesy of the Artists
- Sandra Gibson + Luis Recoder
- Introduction: On Cinema Expanding
- Jill Murphy and Laura Rascaroli
- Part One: Materialities
- 1. Cinema as (In)Visible Object
- Looking, Making, and Remaking
- 2. Objects in Time
- Artefacts in Artists’ Moving Image
- 3. Materializing the Body of the Actor
- Labour, Memory, and Storage
- 4. How to Spell ‘Film’
- Gibson + Recoder’s Alphabet of Projection
- Part Two: Immaterialities
- 5. The Magic of Shadows
- Distancing and Exposure in William Kentridge’s More Sweetly Play the Dance
- 6. Douglas Gordon and the Gallery of the Mind
- 7. A Throw of the Dice Will Never Abolish Chance
- Tacita Dean’s Section Cinema (Homage to Marcel Broodthaers)
- Part Three: Temporalities
- 8. The Photo-Filmic Diorama
- 9. The Cinematic Dispositif and its Ghost
- 10. Time/Frame: On Cinematic Duration
- Part Four: The Futures of the Image
- 11. Interactivity without Control
- David OReilly’s Everything (2017) and the Representation of Totality
- 12. Post-Cinematic Unframing
- 13. Absolute Immanence
- Index
- List of Illustrations
- Figure 1 Gibson + Recoder, Light Spill (2005). Modified 16mm film projector, film, screen, dimensions variable. Installation view, EYE Film Museum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 2016. Photo by Hans Wilschut.
- Figure 2 Gibson + Recoder, Threadbare (2013). 16mm film projector, reels, film, 27 x 35 x 12 inches. Courtesy of Gibson + Recoder Studio, Brooklyn, NY, 2013. Photo by Rachel Hamburger.
- Figure 3 Gibson + Recoder, Illuminatoria (2016). Hand-blown glass, rheostat motors, lighting kit, Lucite, hardware, 114 x 80 inches. Installation view, Exploratorium, San Francisco, CA, 2016. Photo by Gayle Laird.
- Figure 4 Gibson + Recoder, The Changeover System (2017). Two screening rooms, two multi-reel feature-length 35mm films, four 35mm film projectors, hand-blown glass, rheostat motors, hardware, variable duration. Dance choreography by Douglas Dunn. Sound co
- Figure 5 Philippe Parreno, Hypothesis, HangarBicocca, Milan (22 Oct 2015 – 14 Feb 2016). Photo Andrea Rossetti. Courtesy of the Artist.
- Figure 6 Tyoji Ikeda, point of no return (2018). Eye Filmmuseum, Amsterdam, December 2018. Photo Laura Rascaroli.
- Figure 7 Runa Islam, Cabinet of Prototypes (2009–2010). Installation view. 16mm colour film, mute, vitrine, projection materials and light filter. Duration: 7’. © Runa Islam. Photo © White Cube (Ben Westoby).
- Figure 8 Tobias Putrih, Auditorium (2008) for CINEMATOGRAPHY (2007–2008) by Runa Islam. Installation view at Galleria Civica di Modena. Scaffolding, OSB plates, 16mm projector, screen. Dimensions: approx. 11 x 6 x 6m. © the artist. Courtesy of the artist
- Figure 9 Runa Islam, Anatomical Study (Instruments) (2013). Silver recouped from film processing. Ø1 15/16 x 2 3/4 in. (Ø5 x 7 cm). © Runa Islam. Photo © White Cube (George Darrell).
- Figure 10 Clemens von Wedemeyer, Remains, Deucalion and Pyrrha (2013). Installation view The Cast. Photo: Matteo Monti (MAXXI). Courtesy Galerie Jocelyn Wolff, Paris; KOW, Berlin.
- Figure 11 Nathaniel Mellors, Hippy Dialectics (2010). Photo: Steve White. Courtesy of the artist, Matt’s Gallery, London, and Institute of Contemporary Arts, London.
- Figure 12 Cécile B. Evans, Sprung a leak (2016). Multi-channel video, raspberry pis, cables, humanoid robots, robot dog, custom fountain, privacy shades, lamps, dog pen, bookshelf, assorted books, prints, miscellaneous items, Solar vitamin bottles. 16:45
- Figure 13 Gibson + Recoder, Reduction Print (2014). 16mm modified projector, 16mm film, reels, sculpting tool, hardware, 27 x 35 x 12 inches. Still Film, March 24–May 28, 2016, Young Projects Gallery, Los Angeles, California. Photo: Rachel Hamburger.
- Figure 14 Gibson + Recoder, Light Spill (2005). 16mm modified projector, 16mm film, screen; dimensions variable. Borderline Behaviour: Drawn Towards Animation, January 25 – March 18, 2007, TENT, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Curated by Edwin Carels for Inte
- Figure 15 Gibson + Recoder, Atmos (2006). 16mm projector, humidifier, glass crystal, hardware, dimensions variable. Transparency, November 14–December 28, 2013, Robischon Gallery, Denver, Colorado. Photo: Courtesy of Robischon Gallery.
- Figure 16 William Kentridge, More Sweetly Play the Dance (2015). Courtesy of William Kentridge Studio and Eye Film Museum, Amsterdam. © William Kentridge Studio.
- Figure 17 William Kentridge, More Sweetly Play the Dance (2015). Courtesy of William Kentridge Studio and Eye Film Museum, Amsterdam. © William Kentridge Studio.
- Figure 18 William Kentridge, More Sweetly Play the Dance (2015). Courtesy of William Kentridge Studio and Eye Film Museum, Amsterdam. © William Kentridge Studio.
- Figure 19 Douglas Gordon, Phantom (2011). © Studio lost but found / Douglas Gordon / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2018. Photo Robert McKeever. Courtesy Gagosian.
- Figure 20 Douglas Gordon, Phantom (2011). © Studio lost but found / Douglas Gordon / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2018. Photo Robert McKeever. Courtesy Gagosian.
- Figure 21 Douglas Gordon, Phantom (2011). © Studio lost but found / Douglas Gordon / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2018. Photo Robert McKeever. Courtesy Gagosian.
- Figure 22 Tacita Dean, Section Cinema, Homage to Marcel Broodthaers (2002). 16mm film, colour with optical sound. 13’, continuous loop. Courtesy of the artist, Frith Street Gallery, London, and Marian Goodman Gallery, New York/Paris.
- Figure 23 Tacita Dean, Section Cinema, Homage to Marcel Broodthaers (2002). 16mm film, colour with optical sound. 13’, continuous loop. Courtesy of the artist, Frith Street Gallery, London, and Marian Goodman Gallery, New York/Paris.
- Figure 24 Tacita Dean, Section Cinema, Homage to Marcel Broodthaers (2002). 16mm film, colour with optical sound. 13’, continuous loop. Courtesy of the artist, Frith Street Gallery, London, and Marian Goodman Gallery, New York/Paris.
- Figure 25 Dulce Pinzón, Nostalgia (Historias del paraíso series, 2011–2012). Reproduced with permission of the artist.
- Figure 26 Gustav Deutsch, Shirley, Visions of Reality (2013): a tableau vivant diorama conspicuously framed around figures immersed in solitary activities. Screenshot.
- Figure 27 Ulrich Seidl, Safari (2016): adapting the dioramic tableau to the genre of staged documentary. Screenshot. © Ulrich Seidl Filmproduktion.
- Figure 28 Hiroshi Sugimoto, Akron Civic, Ohio (1980), gelatin silver print.
© Hiroshi Sugimoto. Courtesy of Gallery Koyanagi.
- Figure 29 Hiroshi Sugimoto, Michigan Theater, Detroit (2015), gelatin silver print.
© Hiroshi Sugimoto. Courtesy of Gallery Koyanagi.
- Figure 30 Eric Baudelaire, Sugar Water (2007). HD Video, 72’. Courtesy of the Artist.
- Figure 31 Eric Baudelaire, Sugar Water (2007). HD Video, 72’. Courtesy of the Artist.
- Figure 32 David OReilly, screen shots from Everything (2017). Courtest of the Artist.
- Figure 33 Bill Anders’ Earthrise (1968) as originally shot [top], and as originally published and still typically reproduced [bottom].
- Figure 34 Illustration depicting the framing of the earth within Charles & Ray Eames’s 1968 A Rough Sketch… [top] and their 1977 Powers of Ten [middle], with Leonardo da Vinci’s 1490 Vitruvian Man [bottom].
- Figure 35 The surface of the human hand at identical magnifications, as depicted in Kees Boeke’s 1957 Cosmic View [left] and Charles & Ray Eames’s 1977 Powers of Ten [right].
- Figure 36 Camille Henrot, Grosse Fatigue (2013), (HD video, duration 13:46 min), installation view. 55th International Art Exhibition, Venice, Italy, Il Palazzo Enciclopedico/The Encyclopedic Palace, curated by Massimiliano Gioni, 1 June–24 November 2013.
- Figure 37 Camille Henrot, Grosse Fatigue, (HD video, duration 13:46 min), installation view. 55th International Art Exhibition, Venice, Italy, Il Palazzo Enciclopedico/The Encyclopedic Palace, curated by Massimiliano Gioni, 1 June–24 November 2013.
- Figure 38 Kevin B. Lee, Transformers: The Premake (a desktop documentary) (2014), <https://vimeo.com/94101046>, screenshot.
- Figure 39 Kevin B. Lee: Transformers: The Premake (a desktop documentary) (2014), <https://vimeo.com/94101046>, screenshot.
- Figure 40 Installation view, Seth Price, Hostage Video Stills With Time Stamps (2005). © Photo: Fabian Frinzel.
- Figure 41 Installation view: foreground, Cory Arcangel, Data Diaries (2003); background: Michel Majerus, DECODER (1997). © Photo: Nicolas Wefers.
- Figure 42 Installation view of works by Michel Majerus. From left to right: Untitled (1996–2002); it does not really matter… (1999); yet sometimes what is read successfully, stops us with its meaning, no. II (1998). © Photo: Nicolas Wefers.
- Acknowledgments
- Foreword: Courtesy of the Artists
- Sandra Gibson + Luis Recoder
- Introduction: On Cinema Expanding
- Jill Murphy and Laura Rascaroli
Text
Audio
Adobe DRM
Login to your account