OCT 29 THROUGH NOV 1, 2015
DIRECTOR’S WELCOME
ISAAC JULIEN Angel, 1996 Trussed series Black-and-white photograph 31½ x 25¼ in. Photo © the artist, courtesy of Isaac Julien and Victoria Miro Gallery, London
THE WEXNER CENTER HAS BEEN MORE THAN INTEGRAL TO ME IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF MY EARLY PRACTICE, AND THAT HISTORY AND FRIENDSHIP WILL NEVER GO AWAY! ISAAC JULIEN
Among the foremost tenets that propel all of us at the Wexner Center for the Arts are being artist-centric, feeding the culture and leading the culture, and remaining ever porous to possibility. And among all the programs and initiatives ever undertaken here, it could be said that one in particular has embodied and reflected those values to a rare and unceasing degree. The Wexner Center’s Film/Video Studio Program, formerly known as Art & Technology, has—since the very inception of this institution—occupied a space at the core of our mission as a creative catalyst and artistic laboratory. So as we bring to a close the center’s 25th anniversary celebrations, it’s beyond fitting that we shine a light on the one facet of our multidisciplinary mandate that, while something of an industry secret, is arguably unique among all our peer institutions. And if that seems a hyperbolic claim to make, I invite you to comb the country for another cultural institution, art center, film institute, or like organization that for 25 years, week in and week out, has invited artists to avail themselves of the remarkable combination of technical, professional, financial, and moral support offered by the Wexner Center. Artists from throughout the US and abroad, at varying stages of their careers, and with varying degrees of media arts experience, have been welcomed to the Wex to realize a film or video that might otherwise never see the light of projection. Some stay for a few days or a few weeks, while others come and go over the course of several years; all become an essential part of the Wex family. It’s hard to overestimate what a studio program like this meant 25 years ago, when video technologies were still in awkward adolescence and incredibly expensive to access. And, as you’ll read in the heartfelt (and often amusing) artist recollections that follow, it remains an all-too-rare resource still. That the Wexner Center has remained steadfast in its commitment to the Film/Video Studio Program is entirely to the credit of the remarkable professionals who have shepherded its evolution from the outset. They are all represented in this publication as well, but so profound has been their individual and collective impact on the center, that I insist upon naming names. To Bill Horrigan, Jason Simon, Melodie Calvert, Maria Troy, David Filipi, Chris Stults, Paul Hill, Mike Olenick, and—above all—to Jennifer Lange, curator of the Film/Video Studio for the last 14 years, I express my utmost respect, admiration, and gratitude. Each has played a crucial and indelible part in shaping and sustaining this special habitat of experimentation, artistry, and creative potential.
SHERRI GELDIN
DIRECTOR, WEXNER CENTER FOR THE ARTS TRUSSED (1996)
INTRODUCTION
ANN HAMILTON
LININGS • VIDEO (1990/93), LINEA (2004), AND OTHER PROJECTS
JENNIFER LANGE CURATOR, FILM/VIDEO STUDIO PROGRAM (ON STAFF 2001–PRESENT)
When I started this job, I knew nothing about video editing technology or running a postproduction studio. I was totally green. I had just finished grad school in Chicago, where I was also working at Donald Young Gallery, which turned out to be far more valuable than any degree I’d earned. It was a commercial gallery but the artists came first, and Donald was always eager to support new ideas and projects, crazy as they might seem at the time. I never once heard him say no to an artist. His relationships were built on mutual trust and respect, a shared love of the creative process, and a willingness to take risks. It was while working there that I decided I wanted to work directly with artists in some capacity. That was 14 years ago. Since then I have had the great fortune to be part of a program that is guided by that same ethos—and I get to say yes.
Over the past 25 years, the Film/Video Studio has supported the work of filmmakers and video artists from around the world—from first-time to famous, and working in all genres. Founded alongside the center’s opening in 1989 under the direction of Bill Horrigan, the program, which was originally called Art & Technology, provided free access to both production equipment and postproduction facilities. Although the technology and equipment have changed dramatically over the years—beginning with linear Grass Valley systems, then moving to digital nonlinear editing systems, and all the while continuing to support the production of film through our stewardship of an Aaton 16mm camera and an 8-plate Steenbeck editing table—the mission of the program has been to help artists navigate the creative process without needing The residency was to master technology or break the bank. The program unprecedented in terms of encourages experimentation and nurtures every artist’s duration but, in retrospect, individual process, wherever that may lead.
it marked a shift in emphasis for the studio away from simply offering access to technology and toward developing deeper, sustained relationships with artists.
One of the most memorable residencies during my tenure was with Sadie Benning. Sadie’s residency occurred at a time when the studio was facing some major challenges. Advances in editing technology—and specifically the success of a more affordable software-based editing platform, Final Cut Pro—were affecting the number of incoming residency proposals. Artists no longer needed a $50,000 Avid system to make a video; they just needed a computer and software. The upside of this development was a further democratization of media-making—artists had a whole new palette at their fingertips. But it also meant that not as many of them needed access to our equipment and services.
In 2003, our department selected Sadie as the recipient of the center’s annual Artist Residency Award, which provides financial support for the creation of a new work as well as access to the studio’s equipment and resources. I knew it had been a while since Sadie had made a video and, as I learned during our initial marathon conversation, she had instead been almost exclusively painting and drawing. But she did have some ideas for a new work that would be based on some of her drawings, and so she arrived in the winter of 2003, armed with portfolios and supplies, and began working. I remember scheduling her to work two to three weeks at a time, as I usually did back then in order to accommodate other artists and our monthly Avid classes. But with the popularity of Final Cut, the Avid classes were becoming increasingly unreliable and there was
almost always a system free. Inevitably, at the end of her three weeks, Sadie would come into my office and sheepishly ask if she could stay three more because she had reached a critical point in the piece and wanted to keep working. With every visit we were feeling increasingly invested in her project and so, of course, the answer was yes. The visits grew longer and more frequent. I’m pretty sure that during one year, she spent more time in Columbus than in Chicago. I remember Sadie found instructions online for a DIY dolly and asked if we could make one for some tracking shots she wanted to try—so I got some really nice wheels donated from a local skate shop, editors Paul Hill and Mike Olenick went out to get pipes and hardware, and one of our exhibition preparators cut the wood for the base and helped assemble it. We still have that dolly, and it has been used by artists a number of times since! No one could have ever predicted at the outset that Sadie’s residency would last a total of three years and culminate in one of the defining works of her career, Play Pause (2006). The residency was unprecedented in terms of duration but, in retrospect, it marked a shift in emphasis for the studio away from simply offering access to technology and toward developing deeper, sustained relationships with artists. At some point during Sadie’s project we embarked on two other epic residencies: with Lucy Raven, who worked for three years on her experimental documentary China Town (2009), and first-time filmmaker April Martin, who worked for a total of nine years on her documentary about police brutality, Cincinnati Goddamn (2015). We went on to develop deeper ongoing relationships with a number of artists, including William E. Jones, Deborah Stratman, and Jennifer Reeder. The
SADIE BENNING Play Pause, 2006. Video, 29 mins. 22 secs.
residencies were (and continue to be) less about access to equipment than about having time, space, and individualized support. That spectrum of support has ranged from Sam Green’s “viewing residency”—during which he watched films on or about the subject of utopia as research for his 2010 film performance Utopia in Four Movements—to the highly precise and technical choreography of sound editing on Shimon Attie’s multichannel installation MetroPAL.IS (2011). And despite working with some of the most established artists in the field, it remains a priority for the studio to work with filmmakers at all stages of their careers, engaging first-time filmmakers as often as working with the most established. How better then to celebrate the history of the program than through conversations with the artists themselves? For the four-day Picture Lock festival we’ve gathered (and in many cases reunited) 13 former residency artists to present and discuss their own work, as well as works by other artists screened from our archive. That same urge to present a multiplicity of voices is found in this publication. In the pages that follow, contributions from current and former residency artists, curators, and editors offer unique perspectives on the creative process and the studio program. Some contributions focus on process, some discuss technology, and others share anecdotes about life outside the studio— where they lived, who they met, and how they spent their time during off-hours. Many of them refer to the studio as family. And indeed it is a community—a family—with relationships built on mutual trust, respect, a shared love of the creative process, and a willingness to take risks. In short, this is a place for artists to call home.
JENNIFER LANGE
A Sadie Benning drawing marks time in the studio, one of many surprises left behind during her residency.
I stayed for three weeks at the Film/Video Studio editing my feature film DAREDEVILS. I felt like an athlete training for an event. I woke early each morning and rode my bicycle on the path between the apartment complex and the center. It was a beautiful ride and a great way to begin a day of sitting! There is not much to describe because, besides this lovely ride to the studio and back to the apartment 10 or 12 hours later each day, nothing really “happened.” I guess that’s why it was so perfect. No distractions, nothing to worry about except the choices germane to the edit. A rare treat, this letting go of everything else.
DAREDEVILS, 2013 Video, 85 mins. 11 secs.
STEPHANIE BARBER DAREDEVILS (2013)
It was great to have the freedom and support to make something that was as likely to fail as not.
I was invited to the Wexner Center in 2004. I was trying my hand at making a nonlinear montage piece called Travis. This approach to filmmaking was all very much outside my comfort zone. At the time, I was floundering and trying to find ways of working outside of a narrative structure. It was not a terrific piece of art that I made while I was there, but the process was really informative and the experience very memorable. It was great to have the freedom and support to make something that was as likely to fail as not. I’m very grateful to the Wexner for giving me a place to work when I was trying to find my footing as a filmmaker. They gave me the physical space to experiment and the mental space to search around. This past year I made a narrative feature film called Livingston. Livingston started as a script with an odd structure and, despite the recognizable cast, was proving tricky to get financed. A Wexner Artist Residency Award allowed us to shoot on 16mm film as opposed to shooting digitally. When shooting on film, there’s always the chance that it will be the last time. It’s my very good fortune that Jennifer Lange and the Wexner gave me another opportunity to have the depth, grain, and life that comes from an image captured on celluloid. The sense of community they offer—and the many films they have turned me onto—have all been super meaningful to me over the years.
BACKGROUND
Travis, 2004 (detail) Video, 11 mins. 46 secs.
KELLY REICHARDT
TRAVIS (2004) AND LIVINGSTON (2016)
BILL HORRIGAN BELOW
Bill Horrigan, as pictured in thermal prints generated by Julia Scher’s 1989 installation Occupational Placement.
FOUNDING DIRECTOR, FILM/VIDEO, 1989–2010 CURATOR AT LARGE, 2010–PRESENT
Writing in 1984, Jonathan Green, the director of the University Gallery of Fine Art at Ohio State, identified two of the distinguishing features of the proposed Center for the Visual Arts: “The goal of the center is not only to offer the most rigorous support for scholarship in the traditional visual arts, but also to vigorously support these new families of emerging media in which collaboration between disciplines, technologies and instrumentalities is the hallmark.”1 Five years later, in immediate advance of the Wexner Center’s public opening, its first director, Robert Stearns, reiterated those aspects of the program agenda: “The Wexner Center’s commitment to production, experimentation, and research is built into the Institute for Advanced Activities in the Arts. There are studios built into the Center’s program for the use of artists and scholars in residence. The Art and Technology Laboratory will be used for creating new works in video and audio art, and the performance space can be used effectively to rehearse and produce new performance works.”2 Those who’ve followed the Wexner Center’s history will realize that the “Institute for Advanced Activities in the Arts” never came to pass, largely due to the immediate necessity of using its designated studio spaces as offices for permanent staff. And while the “Art and Technology Laboratory” (quickly converted conversationally into “Art & Tech”) was kept central within the center’s core values, it was less clear how it would be configured in relation to the three discrete program areas of visual arts, film/video, and performing arts. Very much in the spirit of that time in contemporary art, the assumption was that artists working across disciplines would benefit from Art & Tech; over the course of 25 years, that assumption Very much in the spirit of continues to be borne out. But in 1989, little attention that time in contemporary had been given as to how the program actually would art, the assumption was be administered. That summer, as the building’s public that artists working across opening loomed a few months away, I argued that the moving image makers supported by film/video would disciplines would benefit likely produce the largest overlap with Art & Tech’s from Art & Tech; over the community of users, and so it would make pragmatic course of 25 years, that sense to have those two areas of concentration linked. assumption continues to be Over time, the film/video designation morphed into media arts, to reflect the resources the studio program borne out. supported.
1. Jonathan Green, “Housing a Program: Architecture as Logic, Architecture as Symbol,” in A Center for the Visual Arts: The Ohio State University Competition, ed. Peter Arnell and Ted Bickford (New York: Rizzoli, 1984), 18. 2. Robert Stearns, “An Interview with Robert Stearns, Director, Wexner Center for the Visual Arts,” news release, Wexner Center for the Visual Arts/ The Ohio State University, February 1989.
The cross-fertilizing instincts of the center’s three main program areas had begun to be felt even before the first exhibitions opened in early 1990; Julia Scher, whose security camera surveillance installation Occupational Placement was on view in the galleries when the building opened in 1989, was the first artist to benefit from Art & Tech, even before it was properly staffed and just barely minimally equipped. Soon thereafter, I was authorized to hire someone to provide technical and program direction of Art & Tech, and I had the immeasurable good fortune to have hired Jason Simon as its founding principal, then as now passionately committed to democratic access and the values of risk and experimentation. Miraculously, our providential destinies continued unbroken thereafter, and their names are Melodie Calvert, Maria Troy, and Jennifer Lange.
JASON SIMON ASSISTANT CURATOR, 1989–91 BEFORE MARKET (2003)
In the summer of 1989 Bill Horrigan interviewed me in New York City, where I lived, for a position at the not-yet-open Wexner Center. In addition to programming films and videos with Bill for the center’s Film/Video Theater, the position included the extraordinary plan to create a space called Art & Tech, deep in the Peter Eisenman–designed building. It was to be a stateof-the-art, moving image artists’ resource, and for that I made the move. The next two years consisted of learning a curatorial practice under Bill and spending a million dollars in Art & Tech. In both areas, the concern was for serving communities of artists, and forging their connection to an attendant institution. Technology was different then: democratizing the means of production was an accepted goal. Standards were either broadcast (expensive) or “prosumer” (cheaper, but still specialized, unlike now). Much of my budget went towards an On-Line Suite, a final-cut finishing console that signaled network worthiness. A more eccentric purchase at the time, a 16mm Aaton film camera, is still in use by artists today. The same cannot be said for the rest.
JULIA SCHER
PERFECT CONDITIONS (1989/2014), “NO, I NEVER LIP-SYNC’D” (2004), AND OTHER WORKS IN PROGRESS
ABOVE
Scher with thermal prints featuring architectural details of the Wexner Center, generated as part of her Occupational Placement installation (1989). RIGHT
Julia Scher drawing sent to the studio after her 2014 residency.
I was born in Ohio and visited Bill Horrigan, Jason Simon, and Melodie Calvert during the early years of the program, but once Jennifer Lange and Paul Hill arrived, I began to make a habit of working there. They have graciously facilitated—I am tempted to say “endured”—the production of 50 films, more or less. It is very difficult to choose which experiences to recount, but I will try. Here are a few: recording my works in progress on VHS then watching them in the artist’s apartment after every day in the studio— apparently no one else does this; marathon conversations with Cecilia Dougherty, Lucy Raven, and Deborah Stratman; on the artist’s apartment bookshelf finding a battered paperback of early Greek philosophy that inspired one of my solo exhibitions in 2014. I have made many other friends at the Wexner, at Ohio State, and in Columbus during the decade or so I have been working sporadically but intensely in the studio. I hope there will be decades more.
WILLIAM E. JONES
FINISHED (1997), TEAROOM (2006), AND MANY OTHER PROJECTS
And therein lies a rarity: the Film/Video Studio Program is staffed. Other such residencies provide an artist with temporary access to expensive machines, and there is also museum support for artists’ video production. But there are no other museum residencies with a staffed production and postproduction facility devoted to making artists’ films.
The first and only artist that I ushered through Art & Tech was Mark Rappaport, for his feature Rock Hudson’s Home Movies (1992), a film made possible by the VHS revolution. Most of his time was spent gleaning stacks of VHS tapes for choice moments with which to inaugurate a new style of meta-cinema essay, a genre that emerged from the electronic proliferation of movies. In cinema’s centenary shift that signaled Art & Tech’s future, nonlinear editing meant makers could look forward and backwards at the same time. Mark ended up with a trilogy of features, short films, plus collages of stills from his method. But mostly I felt that what Art & Tech had given him was time. Now it gives more.
I was a lone staffer in the area then, my workday still split with programming for the theater. Now there are three full-time people working in Art & Tech, or what’s now called the Film/Video Studio. And therein lies a rarity: the Film/Video Studio Program is staffed. Other such residencies provide an artist with temporary access to expensive machines, and there is also museum support for artists’ video production. But there are no other museum residencies with a staffed production and postproduction facility devoted to making artists’ films.
I returned to New York in 1991. I can only guess what stars aligned to maintain such a generous and talent-filled place since. Certainly the juncture of the medium and the context in those years gave it a fateful start. The art was urgent, and could grab hold of a medium for its resonating impact on content and dissemination: a case of being in the right place at the right time and picking the right tools. Not the Betacam On-Line Suite (good riddance!), but the voice and the light, the time and the venue: those worked.
The Film/Video Studio has played a pivotal role in the development of so many artists’ works. It allowed me to produce my first multichannel video project at a time when I couldn’t possibly have done it myself. This support was so necessary and the experience was incredibly generative. From casting to shooting to editing, everyone at the Wexner was so wonderfully generous with their skills and patience. And I learned a tremendous amount from the experience. It really was a turning point in my practice. I can think of no other program that matches the Wexner Center’s ability to not only show work, but to develop it and actually produce it. BARBARA KRUGER PSAS (1996) AND SPEW (1996)
MELODIE CALVERT ASSOCIATE CURATOR, 1992–97 SPANKING MARSHA (1996) AND THE CUCUMBER INCIDENT (2003)
I worked as the associate curator of media arts (now film/video) at the Wexner Center from 1992 to 1997. During my nearly five years there I was fortunate to be part of many independent projects and facilitate access for artists to new and emerging technologies. I was the second person to run the Art & Technology facility and had the opportunity to expand the program to include Avid and Avid training. We might not have had housing for Art & Tech yet, but that meant I personally housed media and performance artists Mary Ellen Strom and Ann Carlson plus their adopted toddlers and larger-than-life Brooklyn “manny.” Yes, I often had to wait my turn for the bathroom in my large, rented Victorian Village home, but that was the personal charm of the program at the time. On another occasion I got to watch my then girlfriend, now a Chinese medicine doctor,
work tirelessly as she edited a Mexican opera all in Spanish, a language she didn’t, shall we say, have a firm grasp on. Sometimes it was controlled chaos to get to the finish line of projects. There were long nights, boisterous dinners, and lots of laughs. There are too many amazing projects to mention, but I made many good friends and I am grateful to have been part of this significant program. I am also very appreciative to have had access to the facilities and equipment to make my documentary The Cucumber Incident. And, most importantly, I had the honor of working with Bill Horrigan for nearly five years. My tenure at the Wexner Center led me to LA and to life as a TV producer, but I wouldn’t be here without being there.
I first came to the Wex around 1996 to finish Lost Book Found. I’d applied to a public television arts show that indicated they’d coproduce the film and was thrilled at the prospect of finally getting it done, with some funding and a broadcast premiere. I was also worried, as I’d sent a recent rough-cut, maybe 10 minutes long, and they’d gone strangely quiet. Right about the time I arrived at my Wexner residency, I contacted the TV people to make sure they knew I was heading into the final stretch. I discovered with horror that they hadn’t liked the “hybrid” documentary/narrative direction the film was taking and had decided to drop their support. But there was no turning back. I’d been welcomed to Ohio, and I’d even arranged to bring in an assistant editor for a few days. I dug in, powered by rejection and betrayal which transmuted into a creative fury: I would now make the film what it most needed to be; no pitching, no explication, no set length or shape for someone else’s slot.
Seeing piled-up films in their cluttered offices or walking past the art in rooms above, I was reminded of the struggles of others. AT LEFT
Promotional poster for Jem Cohen’s Lost Book Found hung in the Film/Video Studio’s main office.
My memory of the time is a blur—walking to my bare cinder-block room in the university dorm in the middle of the night; an old-school donut joint I thankfully floated in and out of; and hour after hour, bearing down in the submarine-like edit room in the bowels of a bizarre building that I regularly couldn’t find the front door to. But there was a sense of quiet support from the staff and, seeing piled-up films in their cluttered offices or walking past the art in rooms above, I was reminded of the struggles of others. With precious few distractions, I burned into the edit and felt Lost Book come to life. When people look back at my life’s work, it will likely be considered the seminal film of my early days as a filmmaker. The role of the Wexner, a unique oasis (especially in an era when an edit room was an often out-of-reach rental), was particular and pivotal, and I’ll never forget it.
JEM COHEN
LOST BOOK FOUND (1996), CHAIN (2004), AND BLESSED ARE THE DREAMS OF MEN (2005)
Circle in the Sand, 2012. Super 16mm film transferred to HD video, 45 mins. 45 secs.
It’s remarkable how respectful and open the program is to each artist’s individual practices and needs. Editing is a slow, personal, and often unpredictable process for me, so it was wonderful to be able to work in whatever direction and speed I felt necessary, but with thoughtful feedback or assistance (or necessary distraction) just a room away. MICHAEL ROBINSON
CIRCLE IN THE SAND (2012)
My project was complicated. I was editing Gone, my first two-channel piece, and I was on the Avid system, which I knew my way around for the most part. Within a few days I had found my pace: begin working at about 2 pm and continue until after midnight. Since the artists’ apartment was in a complex with a swimming pool, I took to swimming in the morning, spending time before work in leisure. I often ended the swim by floating on my back for a few minutes, looking straight up at the blue sky. By the time I arrived at the Wexner, I was usually in a great mood—energized, relaxed, and ready to go. This wasn’t due to my own inner qualities, but was because I had both time and space to work, completely free of the pressures of normal life. One night as I waited for the Avid effects to render, I laid down on the floor, eyes closed at first, then eyes opened staring at the
ceiling. Someone else came into the studio that night. It was Margaret Stratton. She found me on the floor and asked if I was alright. I realized in that moment how completely happy I was, waiting for the software to do its thing and utterly engrossed in the beauty of the piece that was emerging in front of me. Lying on the floor was like floating in the pool, except as I looked up at the ceiling I saw electronic images, colors, and movements not usually encountered in the real world. Not quite hallucinating, but simply still inside the deep editing moment.
CECILIA DOUGHERTY
GONE (2000), THE THIRD INTERVAL (2010), AND OTHER PROJECTS
MARIA TROY ASSOCIATE CURATOR, 1997–2001
ABOVE
A plaque with Polaroids of Maria Troy and studio editor Paul Hill (taken by artist Deborah Stratman) commemorates the inauguration of the studio’s first water cooler. GATEFOLD
I like to think that my term there at Wexner coincided with an increase in the number of residencies a year. My desk moved to the studio area and a second full-time video editor was added. Some residencies were more intense than others, but I think that mix of hands-on and hands-off work was good for the program and responded to what different artists needed. I smile when I think not only of the artist visits but of the in-house videos that editors Paul Hill and Kathryn Morris, Amanda Ault, and I made for various things (the Wexner Center’s annual pumpkin contest, how not to set your dorm-room on fire with popcorn, etc.).
EXTERIOR
A requirement for each residency is for artists to leave one master copy of their completed project; this is a detail of the studio’s extensive archive. INTERIOR
Since the early days of the Film/Video Studio, it’s been a tradition of studio staff to take Polaroids—some candid, some not so candid—of filmmakers in residence. The following selection is compiled from over the years; not all visiting filmmakers are pictured.
I’m glad that the studio’s tradition of taking Polaroids of artists is still happening. It was silly how it started. I was sort of jokingly into the pop group the Spice Girls for a while and got the Spice Cam at Target, I think, and some other silly stuff like the Pop Talker (sort of a headset for a lollipop). People would give me Spice Girls stuff, too, once they saw I had a small collection. Kind of like Bill Horrigan with his snow globe collection but way smaller. I got rid of the rest but kept the Spice Cam. I think Paul had the idea to take pictures of artists in residence because then we could look at the wall and remember who had been through the studio. An artist would ask me who had worked in the program and without the photos I would just draw a blank. So from then on it started to be its own thing. Happy anniversary and many happy returns of the day! May the waters of the Fountain of Inspiration keep flowing!
PAUL HILL STUDIO EDITOR, 1996–PRESENT MYTH OF FATHER (2003) AND CINCINNATI GODDAMN (2015)
Melodie Calvert was the associate curator of media arts at the Wexner Center when she taught a video art class at Wright State University in Dayton, where I was going for film school. While teaching the likes of Vito Acconci, Martha Rosler, Nam June Paik, and Bruce Nauman, she was also showing newer videos that were being produced in the very young Art & Technology studio at the Wexner Center. When I learned that just down the road in Columbus was a residency program that helps artists produce their videos, I wanted to be a part of it. After much pleading, Melodie granted me a summer internship, which led to nearly 20 years of working in the studio on hundreds of projects crossing genres from documentaries to gallery installations to narratives. Whether it’s counting black-and-white frames with Bruce McClure or working through a complex story arc on the documentary The Brandon Teena Story (1998), it seems like every rotation brings new storytelling challenges. There are too many memories for any one accounting, but what I’ve liked the most about being an editor in the Film/Video Studio for nearly half my life is the nonstop flow of learning. From solving storytelling problems to learning new technical challenges to being schooled in the subject of whatever project is on the table that week, it seems my “job” is really more play than work. Working with (or rather, juggling) different personalities and work ethics keeps it interesting to say the least! My filmmaker friends are envious when I explain what I do on a day-to-day basis. They say, “you have a pretty sweet gig.” I can honestly say that after all these years of working with filmmakers and artists and challenging each other to do better work, the experience has been immeasurable and one I never imagined having as a that just down kid right out of film school!
When I learned the road in Columbus was a residency program that helps artists produce their videos, I wanted to be a part of it.
What I like(d) about the Wexner Center’s Film/Video Studio: Spending 40 hours a week with Paul Hill. What were the chances I would edit with someone who knew The Honeymooners episode wherein Art Carney teaches Jackie Gleason to dance to the Hucklebuck? That the process continued to be creative and generative until it was done. Laughing my head off—usually at something that Jennifer Lange said in an earnest tone or at Jennifer Reeder striking a pose. Waiting to see what Mike Olenick would wear each day and finding out I could never outplaid him. Being apartment mates with Deborah Stratman.
NANCY ANDREWS
I’ll never forget the eagerness that a blond young man met me with when I walked in the editing suite at the Wexner. It was Paul Hill and he seemed to love working with my imagery, my concerns, my complexities. What could make a moving image maker happier? Not much! Sometimes the projects were long and in another language (Japanese), but Paul would set the schedule and tune up the machines to accommodate us as we turned our attention to my film on Ogawa Shinsuke, Devotion (2000). Other times we’d need to render, render, render (remember the old days when it took soooo LONG?), and he suggested I go take a swim. Literally, the housing for artists had an old swimming pool in the back and wasn’t but a bike ride away from campus. I think we were working on The Female Closet (1998) when I got that afternoon break. It seemed like every time I requested a residency at the Wexner, I got one. Never felt so supported! But I didn’t want to ask too often as I knew there were a lot of other artists out there that needed the good will, skills, and energy that were available in Columbus.
BARBARA HAMMER
OUT IN SOUTH AFRICA (1994), DEVOTION (2000), AND LOVER OTHER (2005)
THE STRANGE EYES OF DR. MYES (2015) (PICTURED ABOVE: Video, 76 mins.)
For me, the studio is a case study in support of the theory that a filmmaker’s work happens in concert with others, and only because of others’ efforts and brilliance does it flourish. Do I have just two words for the Wexner, and are they Paul Hill? Without Paul’s patience and expertise in the underlying ideas of the projects I dragged—unfinished, tentative, and in-need—to the Film/Video Studio, I would have been lost. And the work subpar. For me, the studio is a case study in support of the theory that a filmmaker’s work happens in concert with others, and only because of others’ efforts and brilliance does it flourish. Yes, the equipment is a set of tools that makes things happen, and those effects are miraculous, but it is the community of Jennifer Lange, Michael Olenick, and most especially for me, Paul Hill, that made the studio so sustaining.
VANALYNE GREEN
SADDLE SORES (1998) AND AN UNTITLED WORK IN PROGRESS
After spending a remarkably hot and humid jungle month in Suriname, where I floated up and down rapids and marched alongside rain forest paths with a sound recordist, Steadicam operator, and the Wexner’s beautiful 16mm Aaton camera in tow, I found myself in the decidedly colder climes of Columbus, Ohio, for a month of editing at the Wexner Center. Under the watchful eyes and ears of Paul Hill, Jennifer Lange, Chris Stults, and Mike Olenick, I synced reel after reel of tropical footsteps, brainstormed structural ideas and conceptual moves, and karaoke’d my way into every nighttime slumber (or at least one). I exerted so much energy that at some point I almost coughed a rib loose—filmmaking is work, it is glorious labor! Cinema gathered around me, the Wexner supported me on all sides: flicker performances, mirror films in the Badlands, resonating installations, kinetic screenings, and this infinite conversation followed. Oh the horizon is vast! Oh what a gift to ride into it with such a wonderful posse at my side...
BEN RUSSELL
Ben Russell in Suriname (holding the Wex’s Aaton 16mm camera) during the filming of Let Each One Go Where He May with Brigid McCaffrey, sound recordist for the project.
LET EACH ONE GO WHERE HE MAY (2009), TRYPPS #7 (BADLANDS) (2010), AND OTHER PROJECTS
MIKE OLENICK STUDIO EDITOR, 2003–PRESENT
My favorite part of making a film is the editing. It’s the most creative part of the process. I build a story, an experience, an expression, one frame at a time. I find production exhausting, but I find editing energizing. Over the past 12 years, I have finished eight films in the Film/Video Studio, working with Mike Olenick. I would not keep coming back if my experience was not exceptional, and I certainly don’t think that the studio would keep having me back if they were not invested in supporting filmmakers over several projects, allowing them to expand their practice. I have become more ambitious with each of my films, which could not have been done without the Wexner’s support. Perhaps postproduction would not be my favorite part of making a film if it did not happen at the Wexner Center—but I don’t want to find that out. Recently, when I had two studio projects screen back-to-back at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival and the 2015 Berlin Film Festival, I broke the news to Mike Olenick and Jennifer Lange before I even told my own mother.
A Million Miles Away, 2014. HD video, 28 mins.
JENNIFER REEDER
TINY PLASTIC RAINBOW (2003), A MILLION MILES AWAY (2014), AND MANY OTHER PROJECTS Mike Olenick hard at work at one of the studio’s Avid editing systems.
ON JENNIFER REEDER I was in grad school in Michigan when I first met Jennifer. During a lecture she showed A Room with the Walls Blasted to Shreds and Falling (2001), and I immediately recognized one of the filming locations—the old Big Bear grocery store on High Street in Columbus—and so I went to ask her about it after her talk. At the time, neither one of us could have imagined that in less than three years I’d be working at the Wex and editing her short The Closer Stockholm (2004). She emailed me before her residency began to say that she was looking forward to meeting me, and so I responded with the story of how we had already met. That moment marked the start of what has since blossomed into a long-lasting professional relationship. It’s been a really special opportunity to work so closely with Jennifer during all these years, and also to witness firsthand the transformation and evolution of her work from more experimental videos to increasingly narrative ones, like A Million Miles Way (2014) and Blood Below the Skin (2015). I’m writing this while we are in the midst of editing her new film Crystal Lake, and for me, there’s nothing more rewarding than sitting next to Jennifer and helping her make another film that is just as smart, funny, and Feminist as F#ck as she is.
ON LUCY RAVEN I first met Lucy in the lobby of the Wex. Trailing behind her was a suitcase filled with hard drives and tapes full of material that would eventually become China Town (2009): hours of audio interviews, sound recordings, stop-motion animation, video footage, archival video, and over 60,000 still photographs. It was a daunting mountain of material to sift through, so I asked Lucy to make a map or a cheat sheet of all the locations in the film (both in the US and China). I knew nothing about copper production and thought that a visual reference would streamline editing. Lucy made a large drawing on a white board in our studio (detail pictured above), and with a quick glance I could easily discern that Robinson was the copper mine in Nevada and that Bingham was the one in Utah. And that Nanjing was the port the copper ore traveled through on its way to Tongling, where the smelter was located. The drawing also served as a reminder that we needed to figure out a way for the viewer to absorb these same details effortlessly, without getting bogged down in names, places, and processes. I think we succeeded, and the drawing is still on that white board today.
DAVID FILIPI DIRECTOR, FILM/VIDEO (ON STAFF 1994–PRESENT)
When I started in 1994 as a curatorial assistant in the film/video department, my responsibilities were split between our screening program and what was then known as Art & Tech. Most days were spent overseeing film shipments or booking upcoming films, but I also found myself tasked with more unusual duties like finding a swimming pool for a shoot by Dalibor Martinis; accompanying Tacita Dean to her first football (read: soccer) game, despite her growing up in the UK; or driving a minivan full of visiting students from the airport to the Wex to attend our Gender & Technology symposium. It’s a bit overwhelming to think of the number of artists who have passed through the Film/Video Studio since, some making a lone visit to the center and others making regular appearances. Occasionally, artists whom we have hosted as part of our screening program have ended up receiving support from the studio. A very enjoyable visit by the Quay Brothers in 2012 to introduce recent work led to an Artist Residency Award the following year in support of Unmistaken Hands: Ex Voto F.H. (2013), which was finished in our studio in a marathon editing session that ended roughly an hour before its world premiere. Guy Maddin was a frequent guest of the center before we selected him for an Artist Residency Award in 2008 in support of Keyhole (2011). We provided financial assistance for Keyhole’s production and from afar Mike Olenick served as assistant editor, as he would continue to for Guy on The Forbidden Room (2015) and his ongoing Séances project. That we were able to offer significant and sustained postproduction That we were able to support to Guy, even while he was in Winnipeg and we offer significant and in Columbus, speaks to the sustained postproduction flexibility of our program and support to Guy, even while our commitment to supporting he was in Winnipeg and artists in any way that we can.
we in Columbus, speaks to the flexibility of our program and our commitment to supporting artists in any way that we can.
Guy Maddin works under the watchful gaze of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s statue, formerly in front of Columbus’s Veterans Memorial hall. Photo: David Filipi.
ABOVE
Isabella Rossellini in Keyhole, 2011 DCP, 94 mins. Image courtesy of Monterey Media BELOW
Guy Maddin Photo: Philippe Migeat
I am flabbergasted with gratitude toward the Wex for their brave financial and spiritual backing of my feature film Keyhole, which simply could not have been made without their enormous boost, and which preserved my complete artistic autonomy for yet another project! Then they did it again on my latest picture, The Forbidden Room, my maddest project yet. I’m so lucky their visionary spirit synchs up with mine, and that together we see the potential of film the same way, though maybe we’re all cross-eyed! I could simply partner with the Wex forever! GUY MADDIN
KEYHOLE (2011), THE FORBIDDEN ROOM (2015), AND SÉANCES (IN PROGRESS)
My residency was a rare chance to carve out time and space to focus solely on my work, work that all too often gets pushed to the back burner by committee meetings, grading, preparing for lectures, and the countless other tasks that come with teaching. CHRISTOPHER HARRIS
UNTITLED WORK IN PROGRESS
CHRIS STULTS ASSOCIATE CURATOR (ON STAFF 2002–PRESENT)
Nimbus Smile, 2009. Video, 8 mins. 30 secs.
The Wexner Center Artist Residency Award came at a crucial and fortuitous juncture in my recent filmmaking history, one in which I was able to move forward and backward with my filmmaking in significant and satisfying ways. The award inspired me to embark on an ambitious new series of digital films which, in anticipation of their premiere at the Wexner in May 2010, I went into heavy production on during the summer of 2009. The completed feature-length cycle, “The Couplets,” were music-centric collage films that explored the vicissitudes of romantic love.
and labor-intensive work, but the residency staff made it an astoundingly easy process—they bring the same high level of creative problem-solving and technical achievement to every project they work on.
My residency itself resulted in a four-disc DVD box set of my Super 8 and 16mm films that encapsulated and effectively summarized my celluloid past. This was detailed, challenging,
WEDNESDAY MORNING TWO A.M. (2009), NIMBUS SMILE (2009), LETHE (2009), AND OTHER PROJECTS
In my three-decade-plus career there are many highlights, but I can think of no moment where I felt more effectively supported aesthetically, technically, and financially than at the time of my Wexner Center Artist Residency Award.
When working at its best, this process happens organically and allows us to nimbly respond to artists while allowing us and our audiences to have deepened relationships with them, to see their work as it is still fresh.
LEWIS KLAHR
ABOVE
Acquired over a decade ago, the studio’s second-hand Schwinn is the primary mode of transportation for many artists in residence.
As a film curator at the Wexner Center, I try to never lose sight of what a remarkable privilege it is to work alongside the Film/Video Studio Program. Usually the presentation of films is far removed from the process of their creation, but at the Wexner Center films often arrive while they’re still alive and in flux. With a constant and varied array of artists passing through, the studio provides a curator with the opportunity to make studio visits with filmmakers on a regular basis without having to leave town. This symbiosis also allows filmmakers who are visiting for a screening of their work to discover the studio program and return to make new work. Or we often discover a film as its being worked on in the studio and arrange a later public presentation of it (either in The Box, the screening program, or in the galleries). When working at its best, this process happens organically and allows us to nimbly respond to artists while allowing us and our audiences to have deepened relationships with them, to see their work as it is still fresh. Which is exactly what a contemporary art museum should be doing.
What we remember most were the long evenings when we could talk shamelessly and headily about pure cinema in all its wealth, and how this fuelled and inspired our daily sessions working through the sound mix with the incredibly supple Wexner team, who were a veritable joy to work with. And maybe to be continued in another lifetime hopefully. QUAY BROTHERS
UNMISTAKEN HANDS: EX VOTO F.H. (2013)
I first came to work at the Wexner Center in the winter of 1998. It was around the time Maria Troy and Paul Hill had me document the inaugural decanting of the studio’s water dispenser. I was editing a video about street drag racers and biking to and from the Wexner apartment in blizzard conditions. The Buckeyes have gotten a lot more tolerant of folks on two wheels since those days. I have made a lot of great memories in that town. Karaoke bars where the dragon ladies bring their own wireless mics. The freaky night-duty Wexner guard who was into wearing medieval armor. Crowds of hooded sheep at the county fair. Buster Keaton en plein air. Marquee Moon on jukeboxes. A long litany of cool visiting artists as flatmates. What I really want to say though is that I love working at the Wexner. Such a chill, informed, supportive group of media diplomats who get involved with your Such a chill, informed, process just precisely as much as you need them to. supportive group of media They don’t give a person grief, even when she takes a diplomats who get involved decade to finish something. And they’ve even let me bring along my geriatric Siamese cat. with your process just
The Quay Brothers take a moment to celebrate Halloween as they put the finishing touches on Unmistaken Hands: Ex Voto F.H., which made its world premiere at the Wexner Center on November 2, 2013.
precisely as much as you need them to.
ABOVE
The BLVD, 1999 Video, 64 mins. AT RIGHT
Deborah Stratman at a Steenbeck film editing table.
DEBORAH STRATMAN
THE BLVD (1999), HACKED CIRCUIT (2014), AND MANY OTHER PROJECTS
April Martin at work in the studio. Photo: Paul Hill.
Films are not the only thing created there, lifelong relationships are built.
I had never made a documentary before I arrived at the Wexner Center with a hot-mess, four-hour rough cut of my film. Silly me thinking Paul Hill would make a few edits and I would be out the door with a good documentary. Seven years later, after countless hours of editing, reinterviewing subjects, nonstop bickering, tears, and very little resources, Paul and I have created a documentary that is an effective tool in the fight for social justice. Paul is not only my codirector and editor of Cincinnati Goddamn, he is my best friend, and we have developed a bond that shall never be broken. And that speaks to how special the Film/Video Studio is. Films are not the only thing created there, lifelong relationships are built. The Wexner Center for the Arts is family.
APRIL MARTIN CINCINNATI GODDAMN (2015)
A moment of peace at the Wexner Center’s artist apartment, late summer 2010. Photo: Jeanne Liotta.
I spent two extraordinarily happy residency periods at the Wexner working on picture and sound edits for my film Crosswalk. Two important moments have stayed with me as touchstones:
Dennis McNulty on location at the Ohio History Center filming The Archivist.
These were periods of time spent with people who just know what is important and what is not, what is necessary to the creative process and what is a bureaucratic burden.
1. The first day: I walked into the office to meet Jennifer, Mike, and Paul for the first time and was slightly unsure what to expect. Paul looked at me and said simply, “We’re here to help you in any way you need—it’s your time.” I almost hugged him. 2. The last day: riding the studio bicycle from my early morning yoga class heading to the Wexner studio for the final wrapping-it-all-up day of work, and thinking, “note to self: your life is perfect right now.”
JEANNE LIOTTA CROSSWALK (2010)
It sounds straightforward to say that the Wexner Center’s Film/Video Studio Program should support artists and filmmakers in their work, but of course the practical enactment of that ethos is an incredibly complex affair. Inherent in the concept of support is the knowledge of where and how it should be applied, and this information is always hard-won. In the case of the Film/Video Studio, it has been accumulated through years of experience gained through direct contact with practitioners. When I began to think back on the time I’ve spent working in Columbus, I found it difficult to pick a single event with which to sum up the experience. Instead, while looking back through emails and jpegs to help condense the haze of memory, I found myself retreading a path of support and understanding. These were periods of time spent with people who just know what is important and what is not, what is necessary to the creative process and what is a bureaucratic burden. Whether it was the trust that was shown me when I was given a card allowing me 24-hour access to the building, the flexibility in accommodating my working process, or the way in which access to shoot at the Ohio History Center was effortlessly negotiated, it was all about trying to help me produce something that was as good as it could possibly be.
DENNIS MCNULTY
INTERZONE (2012) AND THE ARCHIVIST (2014) Interzone, 2012. Video, 11 mins. 40 secs.
Over the course of several years I drove crosscountry from New York to Columbus, Ohio, many times. Like so many other creators, I was here to take my animation project beyond what I could achieve on my own, and I was in good hands. Some days, Mike Olenick’s famed wild wardrobe of stripes, plaids, and dots, and my animation frames of similar themes, merged into one world. I collected a cacophony of objects from the local thrift store—ice cube trays, beads, broken toys—to record sounds that Paul Hill helped craft into a mesmerizing soundtrack for Equator. I left the Wexner with a deep appreciation for film as a collaborative endeavor.
AMY YOES
Equator, 2010. Video, 2 mins. 13 secs.
EQUATOR (2010)
Twenty-five years ago I was for mysterious reasons driving around in Columbus with my friends. We had driven up from Portsmouth, and unbeknownst to ourselves, we were trying to go to a gay bar even though none of us were yet out or of age. We wandered into the Wexner Center and saw Todd Haynes’s Poison (1991). That strange, wonderful film, with its bold, sparkling queerness, was for me a life-changing encounter with culture. I thought wow, this can be a movie? Five or six years later, I became an intern at the Wexner Center. I went there to work with Jason Simon and Gregg Bordowitz on Gregg’s film The Suicide (1996). I couldn’t have known then that these would become friendships, much less that they would be so defining and sustaining in terms of my emotional and intellectual world-making. This was in the infancy of digital editing, and one of my jobs was to type time-code data for Tom Kalin’s wonderful short film Plain Pleasures (1996), at a time when a nine-gigabyte hard drive was unthinkably advanced. My whole job was to move data on and off of it because that storage space was so precious. Now it’s several tectonic shifts later, after the internet, the capitalization of video art, and a wildly changed world for American independent film. As a recipient of the program’s Artist Residency Award, it has been materially meaningful that Jennifer Lange and Chris Stults and Dave Filipi are still shaping the program to support artists’ actual needs in a changing cinema landscape. This is of course to my great benefit and their
JENNIFER LANGE CURATOR, FILM/VIDEO STUDIO PROGRAM LIZA JOHNSON AND ELIZABETH A. POVINELLI Karrabing! Low Tide Turning, 2012. Written and performed by the Karrabing Indigenous Corporation. Video, 14 mins. 16 secs.
great credit. I also see it as a ripple effect of the grounded, rangy intelligence that Bill Horrigan and Jason Simon and Melodie Calvert established and modeled for me, and that Jennifer, Chris, and Dave continue. There is a real depth to my love and debt to you all, because of who you are and how you think. I remember watching Beth B and William E. Jones from the program’s VHS archive, and then going to see films by Sydney Pollack and Powell and Pressburger in its theater— all promiscuously presented to me as equally interesting and equally important, the most poetic experimental forms alongside the most mass cultural. You have always been ahead of your time, and in the most generous, formative way, you have always been way ahead of me.
LIZA JOHNSON
IN THE AIR (2009), KARRABING! LOW TIDE TURNING (2012), AND NERVOUS (IN PROGRESS)
A view of the studio’s early linear editing system.
FILM/VIDEO RESIDENCIES Charlie Ahearn Austin Allen Regi Allen Terry Allen + Mara Alper Jo Andres Nancy Andrews Erik Greenberg Anjou Martí Anson Stewart Applegath Afif Arabi Shimon Attie Beth B Phyllis Baldino Stephanie Barber Judith Barry + Melika Bass Martin Beck Ericka Beckman Gretchen Bender Shawn Bennett Sadie Benning + John Berge Dawoud Bey Barbara Bickart Janet Biggs Ana Bilankov Andy Black Dick Blau Odette Blum Suzanne Bocanegra Marusia Bociurkiw Steven Bognar + Dan Boord Gregg Bordowitz Chris Bournea Joan Braderman Chris Bratton Linda Goode Bryant S. A. Burks Mark Burson Melodie Calvert Lana Z. Caplan Jean Carlomusto Ann Carlson + Rebecca Carter Vicki Casa-Egan Paul Chan +
Todd Chandler Ping Chong Julia Christensen Portia Cobb Malcolm Cochran Adam Cohen Jem Cohen Jim Collier Hannah Collins Phil Collins + Cecilia Condit Stephen Connolly Betsy Connors + Scott Cozzolino Jordan Crandall Alison Crocetta Frank Cromer Una-Kariim Cross Ximena Cuevas Nina Czegledy Rene Daalder Olaifa N’Dieye Danavall Bill Daniel Julie Dash + Moyra Davey Eric Davies Collis Davis Michelle Davis Dennis Day Tacita Dean + Jonathas de Andrade + Sue de Beer David Deitcher Joaquin de la Puente Helen De Michiel + Andrés Denegri Tina DiFeliciantonio Rineke Dijkstra + Cecilia Dougherty Boryana Dragoeva Samantha Drake Cheryl Dunn + Jay Dunn Greg Durbin Will Eno Alex Esber Erin Espelie Pouran Esrafily
Kevin Jerome Everson e-Xplo Steve Fagin + Kate Farrell Lori Felker Ann Fessler Kit Fitzgerald Elle Flanders Andrea Fraser Katrina Fullman Coco Fusco Peter Garfield Csongar Gaspar John Giffin Leah Gilliam Pearl Gluck Stacy Goldate Gabriella Golder Annie Goldson Yoni Goldstein Rita Gonzalez Jacqueline Goss Jesse Aron Green Renée Green Sam Green + Vanalyne Green Wynne Greenwood John Greyson C. A. Griffith D. B. Griffith Joseph Grigely Rajko Grlic Xiamin Gu Nicolás Guagnini Catherine Gund Dee Dee Halleck Susan Halpern Ann Hamilton + Barbara Hammer K8 Hardy Christopher Harris Daniel Hartnett Tom Hayes Todd Haynes + Paula Heredia Paul Hill Susan Hiller Aleksandar Illic
Denise Iris Billy Jackson Liza Johnson + Bill T. Jones + William E. Jones Shelley Jordon Marc Joseph Berg Alex Juhasz Isaac Julien + Miranda July + Paul Alexander Juutilainen Tom Kalin + Mike Kash Shambhavi Kaul Donald Kinney + Robert Kinney + Peter Kirby Lewis Klahr + Kazaad Kotwal Daniel Kramer Chris Kraus Barbara Kruger + Sowon Kwon + Laura Larson Ann Lauterbach Kirsten Leenaars Drew Leifheit Ralph Lemon Laida Lertxundi Le Tigre Dani Leventhal + Erik Levine Mark Lewis Jeanne Liotta Ardele Lister Lilla LoCurto Marie Losier + Paul Lovelace Kristin Lucas Kara Lynch Guy Maddin + Bonita Makuch Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle + Christian Marclay Chris Marker + April Martin Dalibor Martinis Gabriel Mascaro
Bruce McClure Brian K. McCollum Josiah McElheny + John McKay Jesse McLean Steve McLean Dennis McNulty Evan Meaney Media Working Group Matt Meindl + Tony Mendoza Michael Mercil Bebe Miller + Daniel Minahan + K. J. Mohr Jennifer Montgomery Marc Moody Ioannis Mookas Matthew Moorman Mandy Morrison Lydia Moyer Thomas Mulready Laura Mulvey Antonio Muntadas Susan Muska Iliyana Nedkova Jeremy Newman Not Channel Zero Jackie Ochs Alison O’Daniel Dan Oki Greta Olafsdottir Amy O’Neill Bill Outcault Xan Palay Paper Tiger Television +
Laura Parnes Dolores Perez Jenny Perlin Beverly Peterson Julia Pimsleur Hugh Pocock Laura Poitras Tom Poole + Matt Porterfield + Lourdes Portillo Elizabeth A. Povinelli H. L. T. Quan Quay Brothers + Walid Ra’ad Ed Radtke Yvonne Rainer Mark Rappaport Lucy Raven + Jennifer Reeder + Jennifer Reeves + Kelly Reichardt + Julia Reichert Justine Amata Richardson Silvia Rivas Julie Roberts Michael Robinson + Jesusa Rodríguez Tamar Rogoff Todd Rohal Trish Rosen Emily Roysdon Oren Rudavsky Ben Russell Alison Ruttan Dan Rybicky Joyan Saunders
Pat Saunders Julia Scher Karin Schneider Bill Seaman Glenn Seator Beverly Seckinger Redelia Shaw Susan Shaw David Shelburne Fern Silva Shelly Silver Jason Simon Lorna Simpson + Jeff Sims Andrea Slane Herb E. Smith Tom Snelgrove Joe Sola Paul Solomon Natasha Spencer Art Spiegelman + Ellen Spiro Brian Springer Sandra Sterle Lionel St. Pierre Deborah Stratman + Margaret Stratton Mary Ellen Strom Elisabeth Subrin Rea Tajiri Shashwati Talukdar Javier Tellez Twyla Tharp Diana Thater Polly Thistlethwaite Seth Thompson
Lynda Thornburg Carol Tizzano Mare Tralla Wu Tsang Bobbi Tsumagari Hope Tucker Victoria Uris Christine Vachon + Luis Valdovino Margo Victor Rafeeq Washington Clifton Watson Carrie Mae Weems Apichatpong Weerasethakul + William Wegman + Leilah Weinraub Matthew Weinstein Yvonne Welbon Aaron Wickenden Eugene Wooden Jeff Wray Daisy Wright Jack Wright Karen Yasinsky Amy Yoes Julie Zando John Zeppetelli Meredith Zielke
+ WEXNER CENTER ARTIST RESIDENCY AWARD RECIPIENTS An essential part of the Wexner Center’s role as a creative research laboratory for artists, the Artist Residency Award Program complements Ohio State’s mission as a leading research institution. Artist Residency Awards are allocated annually in the three programming areas at the Wexner Center: visual arts (including architecture and design), performing arts, and media arts (film and video). Chosen by the center’s curators and director, residency artists receive significant financial resources, along with technical, intellectual, and professional support to develop new work on-site.
The Wexner Center for the Arts is The Ohio State University’s multidisciplinary, international laboratory for the exploration and advancement of contemporary art. Through exhibitions, screenings, performances, artist residencies, and educational programs, the Wexner Center acts as a forum where established and emerging artists can test ideas and where diverse audiences can participate in cultural experiences that enhance understanding of the art of our time. In its programs, the Wexner Center balances a commitment to experimentation with a commitment to traditions of innovation and affirms the university’s mission of education, research, and community service.
WEXNER CENTER FILM/VIDEO STAFF David Filipi, Director Jennifer Lange, Curator, Film/Video Studio Program Chris Stults, Associate Curator Paul Hill, Studio Editor, Film/Video Studio Program Mike Olenick, Studio Editor, Film/Video Studio Program Bruce Bartoo, Projectionist, Technical Services Allison Buenger, Administrative Associate Adam Vincent, Assistant BROCHURE Erica Anderson, Director of Creative Services Brandon Ballog, Designer Ryan Shafer, Publications Editor
YOU HAVE ALWAYS BEEN AHEAD OF YOUR TIME, AND IN THE MOST GENEROUS, FORMATIVE WAY, YOU HAVE ALWAYS BEEN WAY AHEAD OF ME. LIZA JOHNSON
© 2015 The Ohio State University, Wexner Center for the Arts Unless otherwise noted, all video stills appear courtesy of the artists.
PICTURE LOCK: 25 YEARS OF FILM/VIDEO RESIDENCIES AT THE WEX Wexner Center artist residencies and commissions are made possible through the generous support of the Wexner Center Foundation. Additional funding for select projects is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Support for the Wexner Center’s 2015–16 film/video season is provided by the Rohauer Collection Foundation. The Wexner Center receives general operating support from the Greater Columbus Arts Council, The Columbus Foundation, Nationwide Foundation, and the Ohio Arts Council. Generous support is also provided by the Corporate Annual Fund of the Wexner Center Foundation and Wexner Center members.
LIZA JOHNSON Lee Brown in In the Air, 2009 (detail) Super 16mm film transferred to HD video, 22 mins.
Thu, Oct 29
Sat, Oct 31
4:30 pm ART & TECHNOLOGY: THE EARLY YEARS
2 pm ANATOMY OF AN EDIT
Jason Simon, Gregg Bordowitz, and Bill Horrigan
with
with Jennifer Reeder and Mike Olenick
FREE
featuring Reeder’s Blood Below the Skin (2015)
7 pm MADE IN OHIO
4:30 pm THE MEASURES
Steven Bognar and Paul Hill
OCTOBER 29– NOVEMBER 1, 2015
with
All events ticketed and held in the Film/Video Theater unless otherwise noted
Fri, Oct 30 4:30 pm FILM LIVES HERE
with Deborah Stratman and Kevin Jerome Everson FREE
7 pm NEW QUEER CINEMA AND BEYOND Tom Kalin and Liza Johnson
with
(Jacqueline Goss and Jenny Perlin, 2014) introduced and with live narration by the directors
6 pm COCKTAIL RECEPTION lower lobby
Public reception with cash bar and light fare FREE
7 pm THE FORBIDDEN ROOM (Guy Maddin, codirected by Evan Johnson, 2015) introduced by
9 pm ROCK HUDSON’S HOME MOVIES
Guy Maddin
(Mark Rappaport, 1992)
1 pm REFRAMING DOCUMENTARY
Sun, Nov 1
with Sam Green and Lucy Raven
3 pm FLAG WARS
(Linda Goode Bryant and Laura Poitras, 2003)
1871 NORTH HIGH STREET | COLUMBUS, OHIO | WEXARTS.ORG |
@WEXARTS #TheWex #PictureLock