Holland's 'Cinema Suitcase' unpacks at the CSI
gallery
Photographs of
Dutch artists in their bright, airy work studios could make NYC
artists/students envious
Staten Island Advance - March 18, 2005
The cheese stands alone. The rest of us do our best
to form alliances and connections.
How we fail or succeed at connecting is the theme of “Cinema
Suitcase Unpacked,” an entertaining show of videos and photographs
shipped this month from Holland to the College of Staten Island.
Photographer Thomas Sykora’s “Displacement,” series, unframed and
stylishly pinned to the wall, opens the discussion series by
invading the studios of the Amsterdam atelier that is the source of
“Cinema Suitcase Unpacked”.
There, Sykora found that the artists who inhabit the often
light-filled and high-ceilinged workspaces, are serious,
preoccupied, even lonely. One looks out the window, but even with
his back turned, he seems dejected, or maybe just a little homesick.
The breathtaking studios will make struggling young American artists
very envious. Not only do Durch artist/students receive such spaces
rent-free, they get stipends and health insurance.
“Cinema Suitcase” the collective that produced the show, includes
celebrated and much-published European semiotician Mieke Bal and
four young filmmaker/video artists — Sykora, Zen Marie, Gary Ward
and Michelle Williams.
Ms. Williams has two videos in the show: A completely disarming
portrait of her father singing Paul Simon’s hit “The Boxer” and a
luminous study of a ghostly albino sea turtle.
The “Boxer” video is just a non-professional singing head, charming
and unashamedly sentimental. “Living Rule” is kind of water ballet
for the unearthly looking turtle. Reportedly, he or she lives a life
of self-imposed exile because regular green turtles have rejected
him/her, and are liable to do worse.
Zen Marie’s gently done “Australia vs. Pakistan” is grainy footage
from a rugby match in Amsterdam. The sound-track is a conversation
between two Pakistani fans that reveals their feelings of unease.
It’s easier to notice their discomfort, frankly, once you’ve been
alerted to it.
The hands-down winner of the prize for Best Video Version of
Alienation is “8till8,” Gary Ward’s layed stationary-camera video of
an evening at a laundromat where nothing but regular washday
drudgery, namely, washing, drying, folding. What makes it look
especially grim and watchable are the layers.
It’s shot through a window that simultaneously reflects the sidewalk
scene. Throughout, a washer spins and spins. It’s the “metaphoric
heart” of not only the laundromat but “8till8,” according to curator
Nanette Salomon.
By
Michael J. Fressola
Reprinted here with permission from the
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