Kissing hats, elephants driving, a man who turns into the sun, and dinosaurs roaming the countryside rarely happen in real life, but at this stop-motion film screening called Stop & Go, all of this will become ordinary. Established filmmakers and visual artists will use stop-motion techniques to tell stories, examine visual phenomena, and make political statements in a collection of short videos.
Squeaky Wheel will host the Stop & Go screening on July 31, at Days Park in Allentown at Dusk (after 8pm). The line-up of videos includes national and international artists and is curated by San Francisco Bay Area artist and animator Sarah Klein. Klein, who uses hand-drawn images and stop-motion animation in her own work, chose pieces that explore the possibilities of stop-motion processes. The animators breathe life into magazine cutouts, homemade drawings, everyday objects, and even the body itself. The result is a selection of videos that are humorous, poignant, and marvelous.
Selected videos in the Stop & Go screening include The Manipulators by Clare Rojas and Andrew Jeffrey Wright who alter and collage images from fashion magazines to create an entirely different story. Intricate paper-cutout circles by sculptor Jen Stark become a series of regurgitating rainbows and mysterious organic structures in Papermation. Quilt-maker Sherri Wood and animator Ignacio Alcantara collaborate on Sewing for Jesus as they animate the making of a quilt that honors the missing American and Iraqi citizens who have died in the Iraq War. Young students from the Croatian animators workshop SAF Cakovec Studio create a darkly funny animation of two characters and their mishaps in We’ve All Fallen From Mars. Comic illustrator Lilli Carré creates a high-wire act of sleepy time bears, black crows, and senior folk in For the Birds.
The complete list of artists includes Ignacio Alcantara, Tommy Becker, Lilli Carré, Pete Davies, Samara Halperin, Meredith Holch, Sean Horchy, Stephanie Hutin, Andrew Kelleher, Lana Kim, Sarah Klein, Mike Leavitt, Michael McHam, Laurie O’Brien, Saelee Oh, Mel Prest, Clare Rojas, Judith Selby, SAF Cakovec Studio, Jen Stark, Melinda Stone, Claudia Tennyson, Sherri Wood, Aeneas Wilder, and Andrew Jeffery Wright
Support for this tour is provided by the Trust for Mutual Understanding in partnership with the Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, California. www.headlands.org. Stop & Go would very much like to thank the folks at VHDG, Croatian Film Club, Fluctuating Images, SAF Cakovec, & Niels Post for their guidance and assistance in creating this tour. Member of Intersection for the Arts Incubator, services for artists wwwtheintersection.org.
Video Selections in this program:
CAMOKNIT (2008, 18:00 min) by Claudia Tennyson
This darkly humorous view of knitting unravels the obsessive qualities and enormous popularity of the craft, which seems to coincide with the climate of fear generated by the ‘war on terror.’
ALARM CLOCK (2004, 2:15 min) by Sean Horchy.
Time makes its own music.
FOR THE BIRDS (2004, 5:50 min) by Lilli Carré.
A high-wire act of sleepy time bears, black birds, and senior folk.
MAMMOTH CAVE (2005, 2:28 min) by Stephanie Hutin.
A fantasy of toys, glitter, paper pieces and natural objects illustrate the music of Holopaw.
SQUEAK, CHIRP, HONK (2006, 0:56 min) by Saelee Oh & Lana Kim.
A friendly look at one of life’s little troubles from a mouse’s perspective.
TUMBLEWEED TOWN (1999. 16mm, 8:00 min) by Samara Halperin. Music by Corner Tour.
Find true love with Todd the Tonka cowboy on his hitchhiking adventures through the Texas desert.
AMERICAN BANDITS (2004, 2:25 min) by Philippe Vendrolini.
A wild ride where altered and animated police risk life-and-limb in pursuit of manic deer.
PULLING DOWN THE SKY TO GIVE YOU THE SUN (2005, 1:45 min) by Tommy Becker.
A celestial piece that combines raw performance, music, and costume.
PAPERMATION (2007, 1:08 min) by Jen Stark. Sound by Eddie Alonso.
A stop-motion piece of regurgitating rainbows and mysterious organic structures using intricate paper-cutouts.
THE COURTSHIP OF THE BIRDMAN (2006, 1:34 min) by Pete Davies.
Sound by Andrew Lynn & Angie Moore.
A timeless tale of love and loss re-told in a saga of epic proportion.
SEWING FOR JESUS (2005, 2:20 min) by Sherri Wood & Ignacio Alcantara.
The construction of a quilt honoring the missing American and Iraqi citizens who died in the Iraq War.
HOWDY HATS (1968, 0:30 min) by Judith Selby.
A meet and greet of chapeau on the green.
PICTURE PERFECT (2006, 7:46 min) by Meredith Holch.
Old postcards and Vermont Life magazines are used to examine the rapidly changing character of life and landscape in rural Northern Vermont.
DOG JUDO - NOISE BOX (2007, 1:15 min) by Andrew Kelleher.
Rexley and Roy, two everyday dogs, both live for judo but have very different ideas on what it is.
BLACK CAT (2006, 2:28 min) by SAF Cakovec Studio.
A darkly funny animation of some characters and their mishaps.
POOP OR FLEUR (2003, 1:28 min) by Melinda Stone.
A series of still photographs shot in order and contact printed onto 35 mm film become a guessing game of sorts. Audience participation is requested to help identify what is what.
WANDERLUST (2008, 5:10 min) by Sarah Klein.
Daily routine motivates the modern day woman to take a trip around the world.
THE MAKING OF THE KOZIK ACTION FIGURE (2006, 1:28 min) by Mike Leavitt.
Another action figure in Mike’s ever-expanding Art Army.
UNTITLED #90 (2002, 1:27 min) by Aeneas Wilder.
Using only red tape and four architectural posts, Aeneas Wilder creates an inspired series of configurations based on addition and subtraction.
ARITHMETIC (2006, 4:47 min) by Laurie O'Brien. Sound by Michael McHam.
An adaptation of In Watermelon Sugar by Richard Brautigan with puppetry, paper cutout animation, found sound, and homemade instruments.
IMMIGRANT SONG (2008, 2:25 min) by Mel Prest.
This sequence chronicles the creation of a painting from spelled-out lyrics.
ICH BIN EIN MANIPULATOR (2003, 4:30 min) by Clare Rojas & Andrew Jeffrey Wright.
Altered, collaged and manipulated images from fashion magazines create an entirely different story.
The Stop & Go Animation Festival
Curators Biography:
Sarah Klein has exhibited her work widely in galleries and museums, on television, and in film festivals. In 1999, she earned a Masters of Fine Arts degree from Mills College in Oakland, California.
Klein is interested in the contrast between the domestic and public worlds; in her videos, drawings, and performances she explores the conducts and codes that define these two realms. She uses hand-drawn images and stop-motion animation to create humorous and often dark narratives on domestic life and other related themes. Recent exhibitions and screenings include Exit Art, New York; Mill Valley Film Festival; Exploratorium, San Francisco; Israeli Center for Digital Art; and Anthology Film Archives in New York.
Stop & Go was Klein’s first curatorial project and premiered at the Electric Works Gallery in San Francisco in 2008. It was followed closely with the food-themed exhibition Taste that was produced at Root Division Gallery in San Francisco. In 2009 she returned with a second installment of Taste and most recently opened Diet for a Small Office at Rhodes & Fletcher, an alternative exhibition space in downtown San Francisco. Another ongoing curatorial research project is The Dough Show, which chronicles artists who use bread as a medium or inspiration in their work. Klein recently presented the updated edition of The Dough Show at the Umami Food and Art Festival in New York.
Klein’s many awards and honors include residencies at the International Animated Film School, Cakovec, Croatia; Djerassi Resident Artist Program, Woodside, California; McColl Center for Visual Art, Charlotte, North Carolina; and Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, Omaha, Nebraska.
www.sarahklein.com
