Tributary – New Expanded Cinema piece premieres on Friday April 8th
April 2, 2017
Tibutary at Healthy Rivers Parnerships (HRP) showcases site-specific art installations about the Missouri River and its tributaries, both real and metaphorical. Works by: Karen McCoy, Caitlin Horsmon, Sarah Hearn, Melissa McGrath, and m.o.i. will be sited at HRPs historic headquarters (815 Woodswether Rd, Kansas City, MO 64105), located in KC’s West Bottoms.
HRP connects communities to their rivers and rivers to their communities by hosting river clean ups, education events, festivals and restoration projects. Tributary at HRP opens Sat., Apr 8th, 1-4 pm with artist talks at 2pm. Exhibit continues through Apr. 22nd.
Soft Center Screenings – Asheville and
April 2, 2017
Recently had the pleasure of putting together a program of work by artists from the Midwest who have been a part of Plug’s programming and presenting it at screenings at Mechanical Eye Microcinema in Asheville and Cellular Cinema in Minneapolis. Great audiences and discussions. Many thanks to Charlotte Taylor and Kevin Obsatz for having me. https://mechanicaleyecinema.org/
http://cellularcinema.org/2017/02/01/cc22-plug-projects-soft-center/
Studios Inc. Residency & Exhibition
February 3, 2017
I’m very honored to have received a Studios Inc. residency – the program provides artists with a free studio for three years. Excited about where this new opportunity will take me.
We also have a great group exhibition up right now – very worth checking out (see website for gallery hours)
No Ties To Earth -featured in an exhibition at Studios Inc.
February 3, 2017
No Ties To Earth -featured in an exhibition at Studios Inc.
Schedule of Events – Practical Optics ** Please note correct…
September 4, 2016
Schedule of Events – Practical Optics ** Please note correct date for Reality Effects is Thursday, September 8th.
In conjunction with my show Practical Optics now up at Front/Space (217 W. 18th St.) there is a month worth of workshops, lectures and screenings. All free and open to the public. Come through!
September 8, 7pm: Reality Effects.
Corey Antis
will discuss optical viewing devices and their construction of 18th/19th/20th century spectacular society.
Corey Antis’ work has been exhibited in national and international exhibitions at the Rebekah Templeton Gallery, Greenlease Gallery at Rockhurst University, Booster and Seven Gallery, the Vox Populi Gallery, Three Walls, Heaven Gallery, Jenny Jaskey Gallery, the D.C. Arts Center, Greenstone Gallery, Hunter College, the Rhode Island School of Design, the Frieze Projects Art Fair, the Stray Show and SPACE Gallery, among others. He received a B.F.A. degree in painting and a B.A. degree in English from Cornell University, as well as an M.F.A. degree in painting from the Tyler School of Art, Temple University. He currently lives and works in Kansas City.
September 10, 11am – 4pm: Pinhole Cinema Workshop
Caitlin Horsmon will lead a workshop on using pinhole cameras to shoot 8mm and 16mm film. We will shoot and hand process a film in an afternoon. This workshop teaches participants how to build a simple pinhole camera from a Super-8 cartridge, washer and pen cap, and to modify a 16mm camera for pinhole cinematography. The workshop will allow participants the opportunity to shoot a short black and white film and process it in the same day. We’ll hand process the film (bucket style) use a less-toxic “Caffenol” hand-process technique that substitutes coffee and washing soda for more traditional film processing chemicals. Pinhole filmmaking is unpredictable and exploratory – expect abstraction and imaginative focus. The films made in the workshop will screen during the ‘contemporary pinhole filmmaking’ screening on September 24. Pre-registration is appreciated. Email horsmonc@gmail.com or text to (816) 582-6809 to reserve your spot.
September 14, 7pm: Perceptive Mutations: the Films of Paolo Gioli
A screening of the cameraless films of Paola Gioli and conversation with
Melissa Lenos.
Gioli is a photographer and filmmaker working in the tradition of the Italian avant-garde who investigates the material nature of the cinema. “As a premise for my way of making films and working with film, the most important things is the movie-camera understood almost as a laboratory (for the shooting and printing of films)… I express my love for the cinema through the movie-camera; in terms of time requirements and production costs, I’m beginning to invent them for myself. Free films made freely.”
Melissa Lenos is Assistant Professor of English at Donnelly College in Kansas City, Kansas. Her writing has appeared most recently in Cinema Journal: In Focus, AnTENNA and In Media Res. She is coauthor (with Michael Ryan) of An Introduction to Film Analysis: Technique and Meaning in Narrative Film, and she is currently editing a collection on uses of classical fairy tales in contemporary popular culture. Her research interests include narratology in Hollywood and media pedagogy.
September 17, 4pm – 6pm: Pinhole Photography Workshop
Adam Finkelston
will lead a workshop that allows participants the opportunity to make and use their own cameras out of ordinary boxes! Boxes and other light tight containers will be provided but participants are encouraged to bring their own containers to use. Containers must be light- tight or easily made light- tight and also be able to open and close. They should also be easy to cut into. Quaker Oats or similar containers are excellent. Some shoe boxes work. Just bring something and we’ll see. Backup plans will be available.
The pinhole camera workshop will demonstrate the simplicity of a basic camera. The word “camera” signifies a room or enclosed space. A pinhole camera only takes minutes to make and is ready to use immediately. The popularity of the pinhole camera has spawned World Pinhole Days and innumerable gallery exhibitions, workshops, and festivals. Participants will have the opportunity to use their cameras and create paper negatives of the images they capture with the cameras.
Adam Finkelston is an artist, art educator, and magazine publisher based in Roeland Park, KS. Mr. Finkelston holds an MA in Photography from the University of Missouri- Kansas City (UMKC), a BFA in Photography from the Kansas City Art Institute, and a BA in Art Education from UMKC. He has shown his photographs in many solo and group exhibitions, and received several awards for his work. In addition to his studio practice, Mr. Finkelston is the owner, publisher, and co- editor of an internationally- recognized quarterly art magazine called, The Hand Magazine: A Magazine For Reproduction-based Arts, through which he has also curated exhibitions of international artists. As an educator, Mr. Finkelston has received numerous awards and grants, including the 2016 ArtsKC Education Award, recognizing his multi- disciplinary student project, Creative Co/Lab.
September 17, 8pm : Figures in the Landscape: The Films of Tom Commerford
A screening of a selection of pinhole films made by
Tom Commerford
, a Chicago-based filmmaker and musician. Using 16mm film, self-constructed lenses and handmade microphones Commerford figures the world and the cinema in surprising ways. His meditative films put the landscape of the Midwest at their center creating reflexive spaces both exterior and interior. “The effect of all this analogue tinkering is an emphatic insistence on film’s materiality—all hypnotically swirling film grain and bouncy, crackling voices, these works never allow the viewer to forget the processes that birthed them.” – Tom McCormack in Cinemascope
September 24, 1pm – 4pm : Pre-Cinematic Toys
In this workshop
Lisa Marie Evans
will explore the pre-cinematic devices like zeotropes and thaumatropes. Participants will make their own image strips exploring the nature of animation and the birth of moving images.
Lisa Marie Evans’ work varies in form from feature length documentary films to short animation and public art installation. As a selected artist for various awards and grants, Evans participates in artist residencies and screens her work internationally, including such locales as Hungary, France, the Philippines and Canada.
Evans thrives from being active within her community. She has developed curricula and taught filmmaking to all ages, facilitates professional development programs for artists, serves on multiple film organizations, and programs documentaries for the Kansas International Film Festival.
September 24, 6pm : Closing Reception
Come back to see the work produced over the course of the exhibition. Pinhole photographs, zeotropes and a films made during the month will be displayed. Screening at 7pm.