review2007

the 12th Annual NOT STILL ART Festival
REVIEW

Each year the Not Still Art Festival has a unique character.
From the large number of excellent work submitted, a cohesive program has to be organized.

In 2007 the program fell into five Movements.

Movement #1

Tammy Renée Brackett's "Flood Water (bio)graphy" crackled with a pensive intensity, water morphing into letters, human expression drowning in the flood water of New Orleans. "Navigating the Pearl System," by Fran Hartnett, pulsed abstract and realistic images through a subterranean space with rhythmic music and sound design. In "Chalazae," Samantha Krukowski transforms cascading, richocheting broken eggs into a scifi universe with Bruce Pennycook's dynamic and and surprising sound design. From an abstract microcosm, we enter Jan Suschitzky's abandoned house, "Het Huis," - 'a house you may or may not have lived in'. This virtual surreality tour is nostalgic and pensive. Neil Thornock's music, from "pastorogenesic," provides a secure emotional footing throughout. The mood intensifies with "Seek Assistance." Vishal Shah masterfully denies us access to signposts which might reveal what he is after. The sound design of Adam Stansbie is formidable - surprising, shocking and impressive. It is the contrasts - instant and subtle - that provoke and rivet our attention. With "Undulation" we resolve the enigma of the nether worls. Animator, Havey Goldman, claims it is not an abstraction, because, after all - it is a 'real undulation.' This black and white piece playfully returns us to a rational universe. James Bohn's music, equally abstract, was composed in tandem with the images.

Movement #2

It is still dark - but now we have entered "Density 1," the urban universe of structure, vehicles and night light. Interleaving through wide screen cityscape, we parse frozen motion - bars of neon light suspended over streets - smog clinging to a reluctant dawn. Video artist Patrick Doan, a.k.a. Defasten, also samples Tim Hecker's "Balkenize you" along with ambient sound." Alex Potts' "Anthem" steps up the light with performance. This light painting, which occasionally suggests a human context, builds gradually into a blazing climax - which is achieved without histrionic music. The music is background to the image, which has its own melody. It is lighter now. With "PIX" we've entered the world of flashing, subliminal images of Osaka - projected on the sense receptors of overstimulated video artist Justin Lincoln. His co-conspirator, Ben Owen, simultaneously created relentless rhythms which punctuate the tsunami of images. "Pixielation" is Kyle Silfer's self-portrait on a Gameboy. Super lo-res, this piece proves that motion is compelling when well directed. We end Movement #2 with a return to our roots: Tanja Vujinovic's "Extagram-02" visualizes noise on a pointillist canvas with an ear for random events. She calls it "info-dust" - which is what future archeologists will make of our work.

Intermission

Movement #3

It's high noon and we are wide awake. Karen Aqua and Ken Field have crafted a spontaneous burst of joy and counterpoint. "Sensorium," in Baroque fashion, joggles us around to an upbeat tempo - but Field has managed an acoustic chamber ensemble to conjure hiphop and mideastern references. "pipilo" is one of animator/composer, Brian Evans, many iterations on a 2:15 theme. These small works leave a big impression: the images (are they 3D?) and the music (is it synthesized?) leave you satisfied and a little mystified. Evans' color is always in a class of its own. If 'white' wasn't in the title, "White Noise" might have been in Movement #1 - but this epic abstraction is bursting with ideas and intense energy. Dennis Miller, who is electronic music composer and animator, has entered a Faustian dilemma. Will this alternate universe of quantum explosions and implosions supplant the taudry reality of daily life? Stay tuned.

Movement #4

This is electronic motion imaging - but hand drawn images may still apply. Phillip Guthrie makes a great visual haiku out of "The Brown Paper Bag". Kyunghwa Lee scribbles all over the subconscious of a "Crazy Woman" who is neither coming or going. Kim Collmer draws on the "Berlin Skin" to Petra Klusmeyer's music which is insistant and repetitive - as windows peel away and wrought iron gates grow leaves.

Movement #5

"Awen" means spirit and Matt Costanza's collaborative venture reminds us of classical Greece and the intensity of music from Eastern Europe. Michaela Eremiasova opens with a choral composition which might be religious - we have the harmonies of the Bulgarian Women's Choir - while Costanza makes a moving stained glass frieze of fractured dancers. Then a violinist appears in the second half of the piece and the music becomes instrumental. There is a deliberateness which is emphasized by the reappearance to the neo-classical dancer. Emile Tobenfeld a.k.a. Dr. T takes the opposite approach. "A Different Kind of Blues" is an excerpt of a live performance where the prolific photographer, video performer and software programmer, lets us have it all. He too is working with a live performance violinist. The randomness of the referential images complements the improvised music. The final piece goes to Stephanie Maxwell, and once again, Michaela Eremiasova. Maxwell has been affected by the pure paganism of Eremiasova's music - or is it the other way around? There is a lushness to the images, which though moving characteristically fast, hover long enough on leaves, grass, the moon - for us to just catch our breath and sigh. Eremiasova is slippery here. The mystery of nature is alluded to - trembled at.

Carol Goss
Artistic Director

The festival is supported in part by the Experimental Television Center's Presentation Funds program, which is supported by the New York State Council on the Arts.
Special thanks to the Micro Museum in Brooklyn, NY and to in kind support from telenet.net and improvart.com.