-
Art in an Age of Mass Culture
Kirk Varnedoe, Adam Gopnik, Arthur Danto, Barbara Rose, Sasha Newman, Roy Lichtenstein, James Rosenquist, Jeff Koons, Jenny Holzer, Elizabeth Murray, and others. Narration by Sasha Newman.
Art in an Age of Mass Culture pulls back the curtain and takes a look at the cultural climate surrounding MoMA’s now famed exhibition, “High & Low: High Art and Popular Culture”. Opening in the fall of 1990, the show placed a spotlight on the rapid merging of consumerism and the artistic avant-garde. Curated by Kirk Varnedoe and Adam Gopnik and featuring work from artists such as Jeff Koons and Roy Lichtenstein, “High & Low” ignites conversations of mass culture and our society’s ever-changing relationship with the arts.
michaelblackwoodproductions.com/project/art-in-an-age-of-mass-culture/
-
After Modernism: The Dilemma of Influence
Isa Genzken, David Hammons, Mike Kelley, Bertrand Lavier, Laurie Simmons, Richard Wentworth; consultant Kasper Konig. Narration by Sasha Newman.
Since the 1960s, other disciplines, cultures, and artists previously excluded from modernism’s privileged canons have become absorbed into an ever expanding field of activity and influence. Younger artists are a new breed of cultural scavengers, anything or anyone is fair game for appropriation or reinterpretation. Fascinated by notions of space, time and the human body, artists such as David Hammons, Laurie Simmons and Richard Wentworth have carved their own path through conceptual art.
michaelblackwoodproductions.com/project/after-modernism-the-dilemma-of-influence/
-
Butoh: Body on the Edge of Crisis
Butoh, a unique theater of improvisation, places the personal experiences of the dancer on center-stage. A Dionysian dance of nudity, eroticism, and sexuality, Butoh’s scale of expression ranges from meditative tenderness to excessive grotesqueness. Through a recalling of the Buddhist death dances of rural Japan, and use of music and masks Butoh is able to incorporate aspects of traditional theater into its extreme performances. An alliance of tradition and rebellion, Butoh is one of the most fascinating underground dance movements. Butoh: Body on the Edge of Crisis is a visually striking film portrait shot on location in Japan with the participation of the major Butoh choreographers and their companies.
michaelblackwoodproductions.com/project/butoh-body-on-the-edge-of-crisis/
-
The Sensual Nature of Sound, 4 Composers: Laurie Anderson, Tania Leon, Meredith Monk, Pauline Oliveros
"The Sensual Nature of Sound" portrays these New York based composer/performers in terms of their musical lives. Although all four women are pioneers in American music, each composer pursues a distinct direction of her own. Since the early 1980s, Laurie Anderson has used music and performance as the foundation for her multi-media stage shows which have since become her trademark. Cuban born Tania Leon composes orchestral music that is an intricate weave of Afro-Cuban and Latin jazz elements embedded within a classical Western concerto format. Meredith Monk experiments with new ideas in music theater and has developed a genre of opera very much her own. Pauline Oliveros draws upon the rich resources of ritual, myth, meditation, and improvisation to create a body of work that is truly visionary. Filmed at rehearsals and performances in the United States and abroad, "The Sensual Nature of Sound" examines the contributions of these diverse composers to contemporary American music.
-
Musical Outsiders: An American Legacy
Harry Partch, Lou Harrison, and Terry Riley
American composers have long struggled against the momentum of the Western European classical tradition and the prestige it has held in America's cultural life. "I did not want to have any stricture at all, I wanted to be completely free." So spoke Harry Partch, describing not only his own path, but also that of two other influential American composers: Lou Harrison and Terry Riley. They were attracted to musical ideas and sounds outside of the surrounding classical mainstream. Together they offer a deeper understanding of what those alternatives are and how they have affected American culture. -
Arata Isozaki II: International Projects
Through a blend of Japanese history and Western influence, Arata Isozaki has built a career around his boldly distinctive architectural style. Constantly challenging the concepts of space, form and tradition, Isozaki’s work dares us to imagine a merging of cultures where artistic movements and methods bind together in riveting new forms. Arata Isozaki II (International Projects) follows the architect to many of his most famous sites including the Barcelona Olympic Sports Palace, Disney’s Team Building in Orlando, New York’s Palladium nightclub, as well as the newly completed Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.
michaelblackwoodproductions.com/project/arata-isozaki-2-international-projects/