Monday 9 December 2013

Zone at Hundred Years Gallery 11th January


A selection of short films from The Zone in collaboration with Kate Halsall and the Galvanize Ensemble - live music and film:

"Galvanize ensemble first worked together as part of Hack the Barbican, presenting a series of installations, cross disciplinary performances and exhibitions, between 19th-23rd August  held at the Barbican Centre, curated by School of Music and Fine Art lecturers Kate Halsall and Duncan MacLeod.
They are working together again, creating music for films relating to themes of landscape and change, also using text sources from Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes (Letter XII from The Borough) and Opus 11 On This Island as well as Graham Greene, D H Lawrence (“living in the chinks”, The Rainbow) John Fowles and Cumbrian poet Meg Peacock.

Joel Bell guitar, Phil Maguire guitar/electronics, Kate Halsall keyboards, Sarah Dacey voice, Paul Fretwell electronics, Serge Vuille percussion."

Film makers include Sean Reynard, Vv Victoria, Simon Mclennan, Veronique Maria, Robert Ross, Robert Robertson, Andrew Greaves, Mark Atkinson, Olivia Buckley, Ryan Kwok, Nadia Perrotta.

Zone film programme-

321-(2.6.78) Sean Reynard - 14'45",UK, 2013.

In Sean Reynard's latest video '321-(2.6.78)' we are exposed to one of the many 'hidden away' (and for good reason) VT Recordings filmed from the bowels of Yorkshire Television's notorious Studio 13 or "The Cesspit" as it was better known.
The footage shows the completely inept production team attempting to film the man responsible for the overly complex background track which accompanies the 1st round quiz of the TV Game show 3-2-1.

Pygmalion Vv Victoria - 2', DV, UK, 2014.
One day in the life of Mark Whyfor. This brief film is on the pain of confirming the confines of existence and in so doing so humbly shows a life in a day of a relationship's conversation. It is demonstrative between matters of fabricating conditions as a means to an end of making fictitious realities in the light of day virtually or  even eventually bringing us closer, towards a threshold.


Shark Taste Robert Ross - 3', HDV, UK, 2014.
Shark taste is an inquiry into the viewer's appreciation of art and the art of the artist.

Doors of the Spirits Robert Robertson - 4'

A procession of ancient and weathered doors from the oldest district in Havana
is counterpointed by the pathos of an old revolutionary song by Carlos Puebla.

Octabeast Andrew Greaves - 16', Live solo keyboard performance with film.


The music -

The piece channels intense improvisation into a strict compositional form. 8 bars are improvised on a set scale, followed by 8 bars on a scale pitched a 5th above. This sequence is repeated, adding a further 8 bars (again pitched a 5th above). The piece repeats and grows by 8 bars; each additional 8 bars pitched a 5th above the previous section. The piece builds to a final section of 8 x 8 bars, with the final 8 bars back to the original scale (but pitched 1 octave higher). The musicians in the audience will probably recognise a "Cycle of 5ths" being completed. By shifting between the mostly related scales/keys/modes, there is an opportunity for the changes to be either subtle or dramatic.


The visuals -

 I have used a collection of found holiday slides from the 1950's & '60's. The images are intended to replicate the process of memory, whereby experiences are remembered and retold; each time becoming simpler and more fitting to a narrative, a narrative informed by subsequent experience. The images repeat and evolve into graphic details and symbols based on how the original experience is later perceived.









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