Video and Before explores various contexts in which artists began using video, bringing art historical, technical, social, and biographical backgrounds forward against each artist’s discovery and experimentation of the new medium.
The featured five artists were the first to use video as an artistic medium in Japan. These artists came to video from different areas: animation, experimental film, performance, and sculpture. Presented chronologically within each artist’s group of works, the selections demonstrate their wide-ranging interests in filmic expression, technology, and themes. Works are sourced from either the artist or researchers working on preservation or digitization projects and are building archival records of the artists' oeuvres. Researchers involved in this screening program are: Christophe Charles (Musashino Art University, media works of Katsuhiro Yamaguchi), and Hirofumi Sakamoto (Wakkanai Hokusei Gakuen University & Postwar Japan Moving Image Archive, works of Toshio Matsumoto).
Takahiko Iimura
[Courtesy of the artist]
A Dance Party in the Kingdom in Lilliput Nos. 1, 1964, 16mm, 12 min. (4 min. excerpt)
Film Strips II, 1966–1970, 16mm, 24 min. (4 min. excerpt)
Chair, 1970, video, 8 min. (3 min. excerpt)
I Love You, 1973–1987, video, 4:40 min. (3 min. excerpt)
Toshio Matsumoto
[Courtesy of the artist & Postwar Japan Moving Image Archive]
The Song of Stone, 1963, 16mm (transferred), 24 min. (3:47 min. excerpt)
For the Damaged Right Eye, 1968, 16mm x3 (digitally transferred to single channel), 13 min. (5 min. excerpt)
Magnetic Scramble, 1968, video, 30 sec.
Metastasis, 1971, video, 8 min. (2 min. excerpt)
Mona Lisa, 1973, video, 3 min. (2 min. excerpt)
Enigma, 1978, video, 3:22 min. (2 min. excerpt)
Ko Nakajima
[Courtesy of the artist & Taki Kentaro, VIDEOART CENTER Tokyo]
Seizoki, 1964, 16mm, 4:10 min.
Biological Life Part 1, 1971, film processed in video, 6 min. (3 min. excerpt)
Shokutaku ressha (Video picnic), 1975, video, 8 min. (3:45 min. excerpt)
What is Photography?, 1976, video, 20 min. (4:45 min. excerpt)
Katsuhiro Yamaguchi
[Courtesy of the artist & Christophe Charles]
Image Modulator, 1969, video, 45 sec.
Eat, 1972, video, 1:30 min
Las Meninas, 1974-1975, video, 7 min. (1:07 min. excerpt)
Ooi and Environs, 1977, video, 10 min. (6:50 min excerpt)
Girl in Vortex, 1977, video, 10 min. (4:40 min excerpt)
Fujiko Nakaya
[Courtesy artist]
Friends of Minamata Victims, 1972, video, 20 min /5:04 min excerpt
Coordination: Right Hand/Left Hand, 1979, video, 2:06 min
*This program is support in part by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.
Image: Still from Ko Nakajima, What is Photography?, 1976. Courtesy the artist.
March 3, 2016 at 7pm
International House Philadelphia
3701 CHESTNUT STREET,
PHILADELPHIA, PA 19104, USA
http://ihousephilly.org/calendar/video-and-before-five-japanese-pioneers