Anthology Film Archives

SCULPTURE CENTER PRESENTS: PUDDLE, POTHOLE, PORTAL

December 12 – December 14

Organized in collaboration with SculptureCenter (Long Island City), this film program coincides with the group exhibition PUDDLE, POTHOLE, PORTAL (on view from October 2, 2014-January 5, 2015). The films included here comprise much of the research for the exhibition at SculptureCenter, and touch on themes around live action and animation, the creation of early virtual worlds in cartoons, and the relationship between humor and technology. The programs include early 20th century mainstream, yet subversive, cartoons by studios like Disney and Fleischer, which suggested comic reconfigurations of reality through machines; independent and artist films that continued these traditions; and WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT, the self-reflexive 1988 Disney film that addressed the history and future of cartoons. The programs are organized to explore the comical and absurd in a reality that is rapidly transforming through machines, industry and technology.

The series includes films by directors such as Charles ‘Charley’ Bowers (American, 1877-1946), who combined slapstick with animation to create fantastical scenarios that were entangled in new industry; Nedeljko Dragic (Croatian, b. 1936), who was a leading member of the Zagreb Animation Film Studio and created fantastic scenes that reconfigured and merged changing urban and psychological spaces; and Sally Cruikshank (American, b. 1949) whose films in the 1970s explored psychedelic mishaps with new technologies. Also featured is Keiichi Tanaami (Japanese, b. 1936), whose sculptures are on view at SculptureCenter, and who will here be screening a new print of THE BRIDE STRIPPED BARE BY HER BACHELORS (1975), a film that melds art, comics, pop culture, technology, and desire.

The exhibition PUDDLE, POTHOLE, PORTAL is co-curated by SculptureCenter Curator Ruba Katrib and artist Camille Henrot. For more info, visit www.sculpture-center.org.

Following the screening on Sunday, there will be a panel discussion about the exhibitions and film program. More information TBA.

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