LIGHT/STRIKE (an open window) is one of a series of short works created and recorded with the use of an original Sony Porta-Pak camera system, circa 1975. The unique properties of the camera render the subject matter of the film as a fragile, vaporous presence. Light/Strike was screend at the sydney Underground Film Festival on September 12 2012 as part of the Material Affection program.
LIGHT/STRIKE (an open window) from Strange Cities Productions on Vimeo.
Ryszard Dabek
Institute of Contemporary Art Newtown 27/4 – 13/5/12
Optimum Viewing Distance is an exercise in cinematic archaeology that uses a series of feature films shot in London in the 1960s as a psychic roadmap. The title refers to a sense of historical and geographical remove as well as the placement of the viewer within the installation. The installation consists of a series of specially constructed viewing boxes that occupy an uncertain formal space; somewhere between minimalist sculpture and pre-cinematic viewing devices.Each box houses a short film shot on super-8 in London during December 2011. Each of these films revisits the location where an iconic 1960s film was shot. The films: Repulsion, Clockwork Orange and Blow-up are inextricably tied to a particular location: Kensington Mansions, Thamesmead and Maryon Park. These locations are re-imagined through a pictorial and structural approach more aligned to the vagaries of memory and the logic of dreams than the narrative confines of the original films.
Optimum Viewing Distance on the I.C.A.N. website: http://icanart.wordpress.com/2012/04/
