KOLAJ LIVE ONLINE
Collage on Screen
Tuesday, 9 July 2024, 7-9PM EDT (2300 UTC)
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Collage on Screen, an eclectic program of moving images, is part of Kolaj Institute’s Collage in Motion project, which explores collage and the moving image, a broad, loosely defined category that includes animations, film cut-ups, collage film, stop-motion, documentaries about collage artists, and other forms of media in which collage—as medium or genre—is present.
This Kolaj LIVE Online will feature works made during Kolaj Institute’s 2023 Collage on Screen Artist Residency, a five-week program designed to support artists who want to develop a practice that includes motion in their artmaking. The artists worked virtually over five weeks in Summer 2023 where they explored the history of collage on screen and the various ways that collage makes its way to the screen and how collage artists operate in the space of moving images and sound. They considered these ideas: “Unlike two-dimensional art, collage on screen is temporal art, meaning it moves through time. Because of this, viewers experience Collage on Screen not as a linear series of images but as an immersive experience.” This residency asked, “How do we, as collage artists, make artwork that speaks to that?” After the residency, the artists debuted their films at Kolaj Fest New Orleans in 2024.
Also on view will be the film, Joy Is Paper, by Ric Kasini Kadour. This short film documents The Paper Parade, a walking Carnival parade organized by the Mystic Krewe of Scissors & Glue in New Orleans that took place in January 2024. The film shows participants in the Joy as Subject: Mardi Gras Artist Residency as they prepare for the event and then as they join members of the Krewe and The Recycle Challenge Krewe as they parade through the streets of The Bywater Neighborhood.
After the screening Ric Kasini Kadour will facilitate a Q&A session with filmmakers in attendance. Kareena Willis, Emmie Trott, Julia Mallory, Kathryn Kim, and Nadia Mytnik-Frantova will speak about their journey to filmmaking and how they approached making their films.
Program Preview
Cultivate
Claudine Marcel Metrick, 4:25 minutes, 2024
“Cultivate is an animation about the wonder of our environment. Images of native pollinators and invasive insects travel through a cosmic garden. A hummingbird moth flies through nebulae stopping to nectar at blooms of quivering bee balm. The invasive spotted lanternfly appears en masse, overtaking a tree trunk. The ubiquitous Japanese beetle scratches and scurries its way through the underbrush of the devil’s trumpet. The sights and sounds combine to create wildscapes—ambient imagery which asks us to pause and engage with the wild world; to observe that which is everyday yet, perhaps largely unnoticed in the space around us. The ethereal sounds were created by the Chandra X-ray Observatory Data Sonification Project which interprets images of deep space in mystical soundscapes.”
Black Pearls
Kareena Willis, 58 seconds, 2024
Black Pearls seeks to deconstruct societal perceptions and challenge prevailing stereotypes surrounding Blackness, aiming to foster a profound understanding of beauty. This film delves deep into the intricate essence of Blackness and beauty, unraveling the multifaceted dimensions that characterize these complex concepts. Through a visually captivating journey, the film employs a unique blend of archival footage, photograms, and experimental techniques, including direct animation. By transcending the boundaries of traditional narratives, Black Pearls weaves together a compelling tapestry that not only captures but celebrates the richness of Blackness and beauty. The result is a cinematic experience that encourages reflection and uplifts vibrant aspects of Black culture and identity.
Angel Baby vs. Drone Eagle
Emily Denlinger, 51 seconds, 2024
“I create artwork in response to research surrounding the intersections of the military-industrial complex, ecology, simulations, mutations, and futurology. I am interested in the way these topics surface consciously and subconsciously while I am creating. My work illustrates my psychological interpretation of reality. Angel Baby vs. Drone Eagle was created in response to Annie Jacobsen’s nonfiction military history book First Platoon: A Story of Modern War in the Age of Identity Dominance. Vintage 8mm home movies allude to footage contemporary law enforcement drones capture of everyday life in America. People do not realize the extent to which the American government was documenting and archiving drone footage during the war in Afghanistan. Many people do not know that American law enforcement has now turned those tools on America, where most states do not require law enforcement to obtain a warrant before using these tools.”
Behind the Scenes
Emmie Trott, 37 seconds, 2024
“Behind the Scenes is a thought-provoking collage animation that dives deep into the dichotomy between media representation and the actual realities of climate change. The centerpiece, a television screen reminiscent of the 1950s, broadcasts a reassuring narrative that climate change concerns are overblown, reflecting the stance of some conservative media outlets. However, the stark contrast emerges in the backdrop, which vividly portrays the undeniable effects and harsh truths of climate change. This visual juxtaposition serves not only as a commentary on media bias but also as an indictment of outdated perspectives that label climate change as ‘unscientific’. The inclusion of a 1950s-styled lady further drives home the message that clinging to past beliefs in the face of modern evidence is both archaic and potentially catastrophic. Behind the Scenes is a compelling call to discernment, urging viewers to look beyond the surface and confront the realities of our changing planet.”
Restraint Within Freedom
Suzanne Greenberg and Chuck Moss, 2:45 minutes, 2024
“Suzanne Greenberg draws upon her deepest desires, secret fantasies and private tragedies for her work. She celebrates access to global art materials and works large to depict expansive forces and feelings. Suzanne searches the world for images and materials from the stratum in which humans live and transforms them into powerful illustrations of euphoric sensuality and humanity. In her artwork, she cherishes the imprint of the hand, the imperfect, nontechnical way of making. Suzanne’s work provides lush visions of coexistence and harmony—what can be with what we already have.”
MOVE!!! Like You Are Dancing in the Footsteps of Your Ancestors!!!
Julia Mallory, 1:43 minutes, 2024
“If ‘dance has never been apolitical’ (Meiver De la Cruz), how does this legacy present in the lives of colonized people? Specifically the kidnapped Africans who were trafficked to the United States and their kin, whose movement and visibility remains highly politicized. Given this reality, MOVE!!! Like You Are Dancing in the Footsteps of Your Ancestors!!! attempts to hone in on the interiority of Black folks that guides their connection to, and practice of, dance. Utilizing collage cutouts and stop motion animation MOVE!!!, is a poetic tribute to the presence and power of Black dance and its ability to build care, community, and connection.”
Glad My Mother Won the Argument
Kathryn Kim, 51 seconds, 2024
“This short film asks whether the viewer believes in premonition, and then tells a true story about avoiding catastrophe by heeding the warnings of a sixth sense. Featuring footage from local media, combined with vintage photographs and collaged images formed from hand-printed and other papers, this animated motion picture recounts the filmmaker’s and her family’s experiences in June 1972, when Rapid City, South Dakota was devastated by a flash flood. Kathryn Kim is a printmaker and collage artist residing in Seattle, Washington. She is the Program Chair for the Northwest Collage Society, for which she has built an on-line library containing edited recordings of presentations, interviews, and workshops. This movie is her first foray into animation.”
Land of Milk and Honey: A Generational Study of Abundance
LaVonna Varnado Brown, 32 seconds, 2024
“Land of Milk and Honey: A Generational Study of Abundance is a tiny film with big themes. It is multidisciplinary artist LaVonna Varnado Brown’s first play with decoupage for screen. As seen in most of her work, LaVonna is contemplating Black women, specifically her mother and grandmother, Jovanna Annette Varnado and Carrie Ann Sandolph, who have transitioned to spirit, her daughter, and herself. This is four people, but she refers to three because the understanding is that someone is in someone else’s utero as an egg at different junctions in time. There is always a connection to the spirit, the womb where the root lives through the placenta is a metaphor for the spirit realm. This is represented by the trios and sets of three seen in the visual. In this film, LaVonna is contemplating Black rest, joy, and pleasure, and rebirth. LaVonna plays with ideas of generational wealth in immaterial forms through use of the cowry shell and neon orbs. Love, mental health, and pleasure access is a form of generational wealth that Artist and Momma LaVonna want to leave as her legacy. The knowledge that access to pleasure is possible through getting to know oneself by reaching back to the root is the portal to the Land of Milk and Honey.”
Yogini Ouroboros: An Alchemical Quest for a Deeper Backbend
Melanie Brewster, 52 seconds, 2024
“I am routinely pushed Instagram ads for training programs to ‘deepen your backbend,’ featuring limber women engaged in yoga poses unattainable to the average practitioner. This urgency for seemingly supernatural flexibility appears to come from a more desperate desire to feel complete, or whole. Thus, Yogini Ouroboros (A Deeper Backbend) offers a multi-pose yoga sequence aimed at transforming the practitioner—bringing her to a state of ecstatic eternal return and oneness with the universe. The source images are from my original screen prints or public domain alchemical texts and illuminated manuscripts. The music is by Chanticleer, Sanctus Polyphony.”
Down The Rabbit Hole or Shadows of Unforgotten Ancestors
Nadia Mytnik-Frantova, 3:20 minutes, 2024
“This is a tribute to the memory of the outstanding film director and collage artist Sergey Parajanov, as well as to my ancestors—both those I knew and those I never met. This experimental animation traces the significant events of 20th-century Russian history through an archival collection of vintage photographs depicting my family’s journey.”
Bug Ballet
Marika Christofides, 31 seconds, 2024
“Marika is a Teaching Assistant Professor of Studio Art at Oklahoma State University. She collects illustrations from feminine-coded mid century print ephemera—such as sewing packets, greeting cards, and recipe books—which she translates into digital collages and print-based works. In Bug Ballet, the insects from a series of 1970s ‘How and Why Wonder Books’ take flight and perform a coordinated ballet for the viewer’s amusement.”
Joy Is Paper
Ric Kasini Kadour, 7:06 minutes, 2024
This short film documents The Paper Parade, a walking Carnival parade organized by the Mystic Krewe of Scissors & Glue in New Orleans that took place in January 2024. The film shows participants in the Joy as Subject: Mardi Gras Artist Residency as they prepare for the event and then as they join members of the Krewe and The Recycle Challenge Krewe as they parade through the streets of The Bywater Neighborhood.
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ABOUT COLLAGE IN MOTION
For the Collage in Motion project, Kolaj Institute sees its role as not one of defining “collage in motion” but as one of asking what “collage in motion” can be. The project manifests as articles in Kolaj Magazine, an online directory, workshops, residencies, and screenings. Artists with a practice of Collage in Motion are encouraged to submit to the online directory.
ABOUT THE COLLAGE ON SCREEN ARTIST RESIDENCY
CALL TO ARTISTS: Collage on Screen Artist Residency 2024
Early Deadline: Sunday, 14 July 2024. Collage on Screen Artist Residency is designed to support artists who want to develop a practice that includes motion in their artmaking. In five virtual meetings over five weeks and through ongoing, online discussion, we will explore the history of collage on screen, the various ways that collage makes its way to the screen, and how collage artists operate in the space of moving images and sound. Unlike two-dimensional art, collage on screen is temporal art, meaning it moves through time. Because of this, viewers experience Collage on Screen not as a linear series of images but as an immersive experience. This residency asks, How do we, as collage artists, make artwork that speaks to that? MORE