White Light Cinema Presents
Restoring Appearances
to Order: Rare Films by Coleen Fitzgibbon
With Coleen Fitzgibbon in Person!
Friday, October 15, 2010 – 7:30pm
At The Nightingale
(1084 N. Milwaukee Ave.)
L.E.S
White Light Cinema is pleased to welcome filmmaker Coleen Fitzgibbon, who will
present a selection of rare works from the 1970s. Fitzgibbon’s work has
been making a resurgence over the last couple of years, with screenings around
the U.S. and Canada of newly preserved prints of several of her major titles.
This show will include one of those, RESTORING APPEARANCES TO ORDER IN 12 MINUTES,
but will primarily focus on extremely rare films, mostly Super-8mm and Regular-8mm
– many of which have not publicly shown since the 1970s, and some never
shown publicly before. Fitzgibbon will be in person to discuss her filmmaking,
her time at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and her participation
in Colab, an important early artists’ collective.
“Coleen Fitzgibbon was active as an experimental film and video artist under the pseudonym "Colen Fitzgibbon" between the years 1973-1980. A student of Owen Land (aka "George Landow") and Stan Brakhage during her years as a film/video student at Art Institute of Chicago (1971-73), she later attended the Whitney Museum of American Art's Independent Study Program under Ron Clark (1973-74), studying with international artists such as Michael Snow, Yvonne Rainer, Vito Acconci, Donald Judd, and Dennis Oppenheim. Between the years 1973-1976 Fitzgibbon made some of her most rigorous experimental work to date on 16mm and super 8 film, screening at numerous international film festivals and museums, including EXPRMNTL 5 at Knokke-Heist in Belgium, Institute of Contemporary Art in London, Anthology Film Archives, Collective For Living Cinema, and Millennium Film Workshop in New York.
Fitzgibbon's films of this period can be considered as part of a second wave
of structural filmmakers. Influenced by the modernist cinema of the mid-to-late
60's and heralded by P. Adams Sitney as “structural film” –
an emerging canon of work which included films by Owen Land, Michael Snow, Paul
Sharits, Tony Conrad, Hollis Frampton, Joyce Wieland – Fitzgibbon's films
were deeply rooted in the high formalist aspirations of the avant-garde.
Her experience in the Whitney's ISP program further enriched her critical disposition
toward her subject matter, in particular the emerging discourse of institutional
critique.
Institutional critique continued in more performance based work with artist
Robin Winters under the collaborative name X + Y (1976-1978). During this brief
period X + Y made a body of work spanning film, video, installation, and performance.
Fitzgibbon's collaborative sensibilities continued when she co-founded the New
York based Collaborative Projects, Inc. (Colab). Forming in 1977, Colab was
an organized group of 30 to 60 artists seeking an alternative outlet that would
call into question and challenge the emergence of the “art market”
in their New York milieu. Fitzgibbon recalls: “The Colab period was an
attempt at a non-hierarchical socialist art movement within NYC's international
capital finance system, and had been inspired by other earlier groups such as
Oldenberg's Store, The Fox publications, Judson Dance Group and the teachings
of Ron Clark, as well as others.” The roster of artists in Colab included
Robin Winters, Jenny Holzer, Peter Fend, Liza Bear, Kiki Smith, Tom Otterness,
Charlie and John Ahearn – to name a few. An integral member in Colab,
Fitzgibbon organized artist shows in her loft studio at 5 Bleeker Street with
thematic titles such as “Income & Wealth,” “Manifesto”
(with Jenny Holzer and Robert Cooney), “Just Another Asshole” (with
Barbara Ess, Jane Sherry, and Virginia Piersol); as well as being one of the
key organizers of the notorious Times Square Show in 1980.” (Balagan Cinema)
PROGRAM:
GYM
(1973, 4 mins., 16mm film transferred to digital video)
Made in Chicago with Christa Maiwald.
"The girls go for exercise in Chicago, with two 8mm cameras, with sound."
(CF)
TIME
(1975, 8 mins., 16mm)
“A nonstop visual flow of headlines and text, all drawn from an issue
of Time Magazine, from cover to cover. The effect is an incessant restlessness
of the filmic frame.” (Sandra Gibson)
RESTORING APPEARANCES TO ORDER IN 12 MINUTES
(1975, 10 mins., 16mm)
"Restoring the Appearance to Order opens with the sounds of running water,
then an image of a dirty, paint-splattered sink. A woman steps into the frame
and begins to scour, scrubbing away the paint and grime. The camera remains
static; the shot continues for a full 12 minutes, ending abruptly before the
task is complete, the work of art offering but a glimpse of the labor around
it." (Holly Willis)
L.E.S. (Lower East Side)
(1975, 25 mins., Super-8mm transferred to digital video)
“The story of the collapse of the problematic island of Manhattma, whose
inhabitants worshiped the god of mamon, John Doe. Shot in the lower eastside
of Manhattan, NYC circa 1976. Filmed on Super-8mm with sound, summer 1976, shown
on ?" videotape 1978 on Manhattan Cable Channel D, Collaborative Projects,
Inc.’s Red Curtain show.” (Sandra Gibson)
Also a never seen before selection of recently preserved Super-8 films from the 1970s, including:
TRIP TO CAROLEE’S
(1973, 6 mins., Super-8mm transferred to digital video)
“’Trip to Carolee's’ is a diary, filmed by C. Fitzgibbon and
partially by Margerie Keller; trip starts in NYC as they drive up to Carolee
Schneemann's for the weekend to take care of her cat, Kitsch, and to relax in
the country. They are exhausted from life in the big city. The trip to
NYC ends up at Fitzgibbon's studio.” (Sandra Gibson)
MARGIE’S HOUSE
(1973, 6 mins., Super-8mm transferred to digital video)
"’Margie's House’ is a diary film by Fitzgibbon shot at
Margerie Keller’s house with several friends visiting.” (Sandra
Gibson)
Plus possible additional unannounced titles.
Fitzgibbon will also be showing a program of work at the Conversations at the
Edge series at the Gene Siskel Film Center on Thursday, October 14 at 6pm.Special
thanks to Coleen Fitzgibbon, Sandra Gibson, and Amy Beste.
Admission: $7-10 sliding scale.