SCREENING: Abstraction Makes Room(s)

Wednesday, September 12, 7:30pm

SCREENING: Abstraction Makes Room(s), organized by Harry Dodge, with videos by Miranda July, Suavitel Paper aka Cosima Shietekat, Alexandre Saden, and Cauleen Smith

The program will run an hour and a half. Seating is limited, arriving early is recommended.

On Wednesday, September 12, JOAN presents Abstraction Makes Room(s), a video screening organized by Harry Dodge and featuring works by Miranda July, Suavitel Paper aka Cosima Shietekat, Alexandre Saden, and Cauleen Smith.

Is formlessness ever a possibility? Does nature really abhor a vacuum? Is the universe proceeding deterministically? —or do these (apparent) patterns signal nothing in particular? (And why does it feel so important?) What is the relationship of abstraction to the random? Why is the unknowable so often (mis)perceived as nothing at all? How is it that this (apparent) hole is (actually) full of utterly specific kinds of loving and being? (GOD— why can’t I feel you now.>>)

These questions and more are considered in an evening of video that includes Miranda July’s The Amateurist (1998; 14:05 minutes); Alexandre Saden’s Closet Phenomenon (2018; 8:23 minutes); Cauleen Smith’s 2010 Demon Fuzz (4:50 minutes); and a recent, long-form video by Suavitel Paper aka Cosima Shietekat, Diositas Ricas (2016; 55:30 minutes).

Image:  Video still, Demon Fuzz, Dir. Cauleen Smith, 2010