Judy Thomas
RIVER RITES
A 20 Screen installation (19 screens, 1 projector).
What would the long lonely nights have been like for a single woman pioneer alone on a hilltop farm in early Texas? A study of her dreams and delierium.
A startling performance by Annalee Jefferies.
2 projectors = 6 vertical screen installation.
One theory of what happens as we dream tells us that the mind is sorting the images and experiences in preparation of storing them for long term memory. In this hectic visual world, what is worth remembering?
The 6 screen montages trapse across a day-in-the-life.
A video art installation for 23 screens.
A video art installation for 23 screens.
a 6 screen-2 projector installation video art piece.
a 6 screen-2 projector installation video art piece.
We belong to the river. The river does not belong to us.
The land and the river belong to themselves.
Video: Judy Thomas
Dancer: Karen MacIntyre
Music: Paula Nelson - "Coming Home"
Video tone poem.
Aging in modern amerikan culture is a confusing business. Even in the effervescent digitalized world some feelings are monumental/momental enough to persist - like beautiful ghosts.
Incidental performances by Karen MacIntyre.
Reference to a beautiful poem "FIshing for Light" by Marily Aitches.
A video art tone poem.
A video art tone poem.
HD
Life is a Series
of
MOMENTS
Not
Minutes
VIDEO Portfolio
GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST'S Milieu
This brief video montage explores the visual arts, political and social environment, and early cinema of the period. It seeks to convey the Futurist's point of view that technological changes were exciting. However I do this in a different way. Though Fritz Lang would not have considered his film Metropolis to be at all compatible with the mad-cap, optimistic Futurists' style, his themes were very relevant to their pro-tech philosophy. Same goes for Chaplin, who was complaining about the de-humanization of technology's rapid pace in his work, Modern Times, but here I use the images to evoke how frenzied the technological changes were 110 years ago ... to try to reveal how furious and frightening their technology was to the artists and audiences then ... and to disavow us of what we might consider "quaint" when we compare their vision to our "modern times".
The Surrealists' film and art is some of my favorite, but I don't claim to be a purist. I used scenes from Dali & Luis Buñuel's surrealist film Un Chien Andalou and even Dali's designs for Hitchcock's Spellbound (1945) along with paintings and images of the Spanish Civil War and WWII.
SURREALIST'S Milieu
FUTURIST'S Milieu
To set the mood for the dour Expressionist, I used film clips from Nosferatu (1922 dir. Mernau), The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920, dir. Robt. Wiene), and others. The wars raged around the artists in this movement and the tragedy of world war is palpable in their theater pieces as well as as their paintings and films.
This brief video montage explores the visual arts of the period that gave birth to the "DADA" movement. Included are several portraits of Dadaists from the art, literary and theater world + Dadaist paintings and art installation pieces + some Dadaist costume designs. I also included some Cubist images - while not really considered Dada, both Picasso and Braque's cubist visions certainly coexisted in the world surrounding the Dadaist.The montage is set to music by Carla Bley; though modern it captures the feeling of the period very well, I think.
DADAIST'S Milieu
SD - Too much fun to toss away
The Avant Garde Experience
As we struggle through our own digital, creative explosion, I find the upheavals that gave birth to what has come to be called the "Avant Garde" era (1890-1940) well worth examining. I also admit these are some of my favorite artistic movements. I love the willingness to experiment with light, planes, abstraction and volume.
In 2004, Shelby Brammer put together an evening of short theater pieces called the Avant Garde Event here in Austin Texas. The evening included theater pieces from the artistic movements now known as Expressionism, Futurism, Dadaism, and Surrealism. She invited a group of local theater directors to take part. I directed two Dada plays and a short Italian Futuristic piece. It was great fun.
To highlight the social, artistic and media milieu surrounding each of the theater styles in her evening, I created brief video montages. My goal in these video interludes was not to teach history or art criticism, but to evoke the times and set the mood for the plays which followed. So liberties were taken - for example, I used examples from Picasso in several of the videos, modern music in some, or mixed some Surrealists in with Dadaists and so on.
This piece opened the evening and focuses most on the street life, political upheaval, intellectual and artistic cultural sphere of Europe between 1890s-1940s. I included brief examples from the early Expressionistic cinema.
This montage is set to the music of Edgar Varese. Probably from his Poem Electronique (It's been years since I made this so I'm not sure.) Circa 1920.
Hope you enjoy.