phasing
Nicole Baker
Eric Gaucher
Malena Szlam
May 7 to June 6, 2020
In recent months the slippage of time has drawn us to alternative and nocturnal forms of reckoning. As our normal frames of reference have crumbled we may not know the day of the week, but the increasingly clear night sky continues to provide us an unfailing and luminous indicator of passing time. A response to the current primacy of virtual life, phasing presents the work of three artists under the sway of our mysterious yet omnipresent satellite. The short film program runs for a lunar month in the Deluge transom window—to be encountered in the fresh air and public realm after dusk.
:\Eclipsed | Nicole Baker | 2016 | 3 min
:\Eclipsed was discovered on a degraded data-storage device by archaeologists in a distant future. It is the creation myth of an ancient civilization recounting the origins of humanity, the creation of the Sun and the Moon, and the curse that keeps them separated until there is an eclipse.
Nicole Elaine Baker is an experimental filmmaker, transmedia artist and founder of Media Monsters, a weekly live-streaming experimental film series (twitch.tv/media_monsters). Her award winning work has been exhibited globally, from the CICA Museum in South Korea to the streets of Mexico City. She is a newly-minted MFA and is currently riding out the global disaster(s) in Astana, Kazakhstan.
The Moons of Palaver | Eric Gaucher | 2018 | 3 min
The Moons of Palaver celebrates the rhythms, patterns, resonance and lyrical elusiveness that can be found or sought out on any particular evening. The original material (an intervalometer test of soft focus automotive headlights shot in the early 2000s) was rediscovered and reworked into a composite of abstract arrangements. The audio is a collage of various found material which was originally recorded in the late 1960s.
Canadian artist Eric Gaucher creates abstract short films comprising imagery, music and poetry. Since the mid 1990s Gaucher has been involved with film and music, both as a musician and filmmaker. His non-narrative films are juxtapositions of rhythms and emotions. As a result, a central tenet of his work has been to evoke a sense of fluidity and wonder, based on the intrinsic structures of music. Gaucher’s work combines a variety of techniques including direct animation, found footage, software exploitation and 3D animation. The accompanying audio work consists of music, both composed and performed, as well as the manipulation of found material.
Lunar Almanac | Malena Szlam | 2013 | 4 min
Lunar Almanac initiates a journey through magnetic spheres with its staccato layering of single-frame, long exposures of a multiplied moon. Shot in 16mm Ektachrome and hand processed, the film’s artisanal touches are imbued with nocturnal mystery. – Andréa Picard, TIFF
Born in Chile, Malena Szlam is an artist and filmmaker based in Montreal since 2006. Working at the intersection of cinema, installation, and performance, her practice explores the relationship between the natural world, perception and intuitive process. The poetics developed through her time-based works and in-camera films engage the material and affective dimensions of analogue film practice. Szlam’s work has been featured in numerous international showcases, including the International Film Festival Rotterdam, the Toronto International Film Festival’s Wavelengths, the New Directors/New Films (MoMA, Lincoln Center), the Edinburgh International Festival, the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, the Melbourne International Film Festival, the Jeonju International Film Festival, the Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires, the Henie Onstad Kunstsenter (Norway) and the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (Denmark). Solo screenings have been presented at Los Angeles Filmforum, San Francisco Cinematheque and FICValdivia (Chile). Her latest film ALTIPLANO (2018) received numerous awards and was chosen as one of TIFF’s Top Ten Canadian Short Films of 2018.