[LuxWeeklyNews] LUX Weekly News, 22nd- 28th January 2007 EVENTS AND OPENINGS IN LONDON THIS WEEK

[luxweekly at lux.org.uk]

LUX Weekly News, 22nd- 28th  January 2007

EVENTS AND OPENINGS IN LONDON THIS WEEK

1. Wake Up and Hide, Gary Stevens, Matts Gallery, 24th January – 18th  
March
2. Creative Process: Norman McLaren, NFT 2, National Film Theatre,  
Wed 24th Jan 6.10pm & Sun 28 Jan 8.40pm
3. Meiro Koizumi, Dicksmith Gallery, 25 January – 25 February
4. Another Album, Johanna Billing, Hollybush Gardens Gallery, 26  
January – 25 February


LUX LONDON EVENTS CALENDAR the most comprehensive daily listing of  
artists' moving image events, screenings and exhibitions in London  
www.lux.org.uk/resources/calendar.htm

1.
24th January – 18th March
Wake Up and Hide, Gary Stevens
Matts Gallery, London
42-44 Copperfield Road
London E3 4RR
Weds - Sun 12 - 6pm
www.mattsgallery.org
Wake Up and Hide is Gary Stevens’ second exhibition at Matt’s  
Gallery. It has developed from Slow Life - a five screen video  
installation commissioned by Matt’s Gallery in 2003. This time the  
slow relentless action, impervious to the spectators, has been  
replaced by fitful unstable images that seem uncomfortable with the  
thought of being seen. There is a symbiosis between the image and the  
performer; the action on screen is disturbed by the presence of the  
spectator in the gallery space.

In Wake Up and Hide, two wide static shots show almost identical  
interiors. In Hide people emerge from hiding places and begin to  
occupy the room. In Wake Up the performers are tense and self- 
conscious but begin to relax, sag and collapse, unless a sound  
disrupts this process and then they run for cover. Wake Up and Hide  
draws on Stevens’ experience with live performance. It is a  
deliberately clunky simulation of life, where repetition has  
variations and occasional surprises.

This new video work was partly inspired by early silent screen  
comedians, the Keystone Cops. In particular, by two production  
photographs showing their predominant states - in one, they are alert  
and ready to run, and in the other, asleep in the office. They are an  
unlikely source for a pre-conscious model of behaviour, but their  
condition offers something between an animal and a machine.

Wake Up and Hide is commissioned by Matt’s Gallery in association  
with Artsadmin. It is accompanied by the 12th in the series of white  
booklets published by Matt’s Gallery, with an essay by Sally O’  
Reilly, which is free to visitors.

2.
Wed 24th Jan 6.10pm & Sun 28 Jan 8.40pm
Creative Process: Norman McLaren
NFT 2
National Film Theatre
Belvedere Rd, South Bank
London, SE1 8XT
Non members: £8.50, £6.25 conc
Book online at www.bfi.org.uk/incinemas/nft/film or 020 7928 3232
A documentary on the creative process of Norman McLaren - the father  
of animation in Canada, and one of the all-time greatest experimental  
film-makers. Drawing on McLaren's private film vaults, a goldmine of  
experimental footage and uncompleted films, Donald McWilliams  
explores McLaren's methods, including his celebrated 'pixillation'  
technique, and his daring forays into animated surrealism. He reveals  
several sources of McLaren's creativity and shows how they were  
transformed into cinema. Few films capture the creative process of an  
artist with as much intelligence and insight as this one.
Canada 1990
With Donald McWilliams. 117 mins
Part of Norman McLaren at the NFT

3.
25 January – 25 February
Meiro Koizumi
Dicksmith Gallery
74 Buttesland Street
London N1 6BY
Thursday - Saturday, 11.00am - 6.00pm
www.dicksmithgallery.co.uk
For his second solo show at the Dicksmith Gallery Meiro Koizumi presents
‘XXX:TRILOGY’, a series of 3 new films. Actors are asked to perform
uncomfortable roles in crude illustrative sets that are suggestive of  
a spacecraft. Continuing from previous work Koizumi sites his ideas  
in the body; bizarre repetitive actions, often physically demanding  
are translated into uneasy demonstrations of the artist’s  
imagination. Meiro Koizumi studied at Chelsea graduating in 2002, and  
has recently finished 2 years at the Rijksakademie, Amsterdam. In  
2006 he showed at Annet Gelink, Amsterdam and in 2005 at Galleria  
luisa Strina, Brazil, MaryMary Glasgow and
the Sammlung Essel Kunst, Vienna, Matter of species
Crows in Tokyo has become so smart these days. They like licking  
candles as candles are made out of oil. So those crows go to cemetery  
where they can easily find many candles. They smartly pick up lighted  
candle with their beak,fly up in the air, and drop the candle from  
the sky. As it dropped, the fire on the candle is extinguished. Down  
on the ground, those smart birds enjoy licking the greasy candle.  
They have become so smart that they are no longer afraid of fire. We,  
humans, no longer have privilege over fire. Those smart birds can  
recognize human faces too. I used to live in woods that are the  
biggest colony of crows in Tokyo. When they are raising baby crows,  
they tend to be very aggressive around their nest. They often attack  
people out of stress. But they only attack certain timid women. Never  
men. Never women with aggressive character. They can recognize very  
well who they can bully, and who they should not. In the same woods,  
two cats were fighting. A tense standoff was underway between the  
two. Around two cats are several crows. From time to time, those  
crows pecked cat’s back with their sharp beaks. It was as if, they  
were trying to stop the fight between two cats. It was as if, they  
think they are responsible for public order of the woods, the Nature.  
They are uncannily starting to resemble with us, Humans. The very  
moment this thought flushed across my mind, I felt some liquid fell  
on top of my head. I looked up, and saw a crow flying away. It  
shitted on my head. I felt not only I, but also the whole species of  
humanity was challenged right at that moment. Fortunately, its shit  
was still cover with whitish substance that characterise bird’s shit.  
But beware, one day, if you find their shit soft and brown and smells  
just like ours, that will be the day the foundation of our species is  
shaken and we truly have to recognise this danger. December 28, 2006  
in Amsterdam, Meiro Koizumi.


4.
26 January – 25 February
Another Album, Johanna Billing
Hollybush Gardens Gallery
Unit 2, BJ House
10-14 Hollybush Gardens
E2 9QP
Open Thur - Sun, 12 - 6pm
www.hollybushgardens.co.uk


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