Art/Experimental: Written On The Body

Flights of imagination are written on the body in this collection of short experimental screendance works.

Intimate portraits, abstract bodyscapes, and surreal elements evoke poignant emotional states and carry urgent messages through the expressive power of the moving form. These ten short films traverse realms suspended outside of space and time and converse with sweeping landscapes, from a forbidding frozen plateau to a vivid seaside scrub desert. Filmmakers experiment with technology, composition, and narrative to reframe relationships with ourselves, each other, and the natural world.

A Prosecco Welcome reception will precede this screening at 6:30PM.

Venue accessibility: The curb cut will be directly in front of the entrance on 248 Utah Street and there is an accessible entrance to get into the gallery.

Program Info

Runtime: 58 minutes

Sunday, October 13 @ 7:00PM

Venue: Catharine Clark Gallery

$25 GA / $40 Arts Patron

Program Films

A person in a white dress stands in front of a wooden wall with intricate square patterns in it. They are taking a step forward, and their body is slightly transparent.

In "Sentence," blurred traces of a dancing figure haunt the walls and spaces of a former courtroom.

Rosemary Lee, Hugo Glendinning

(United Kingdom, 2023) 9:00 minutes

Sentence

A bald, purple-skinned humanoid alien lays with their head resting on their arms on top of the dirt. There is a lake surrounded by woods in the background.

In “LUCE,” an alien creature discovers the natural world around her with tentative, curious, and fluidly expressive tones.

Valeria Galluccio

Valeria Galluccio

(Canada, 2023) 7:35 minutes

LUCE

A woman in modern-day clothing stands in an alley with her arms up, facing a spray-painted image of an early 20th Century soldier on a wall. The soldier holds up a gun pointed in her direction.

Set in the Spanish countryside, “Miguel” shapes a layered meditation on the body, memory, place, and history through the eyes of one dancer.

Susana Panadés Díaz

Susana Panadés Díaz

(Switzerland, 2023) 12:14 minutes

Miguel

An Asian woman stands outside in the sun. She is bending forward slightly, with one hand on her cheek and one on her forehead, her eyes down.

Renowned movement artist Eiko Otake meditates on self, place, and belonging in “a foreigner.”

Eiko Otake, Patrizia Herminjard

(Japan, 2023) 3:53 minutes

a foreigner

An Asian woman with a slick bun hairstyle crouches over, as her entire body is covered in black ash and metallic gold leaf.

“FR:AGILITY” renders the body abstract with otherworldly textures, forms, and movements to suggest harmonies and contradictions.

Amanda Tan

(Singapore, 2024) 7:50 minutes

FR:AGILITY

Male ballet dancer Joseph Walsh poses at a ballet barre. He leans, hanging onto the barre with one hand, and looks downwards. He wears a baggy beige t-shirt, silver tights, and light beige ballet shoes.

Delve into the intimate world of a ballet dancer’s quiet joys and challenges in “Autumn Etude.”

Ryan Strongin

(United States, 2024) 4:22 minutes

Autumn Etude

A dancer in a tan colored suit sits on a rocky cliff in front of a large, tan rock, her arm extending in front of her, palm out towards the sun. Three additional arms stick out from behind the rock. The ocean is a deep blue in the distance.

Seaside scrub desert turns surreal in “Shake Stew - Lila” as a dancer’s quirky movements melt and multiply through the landscape.

Rupert Höller

Tamara Mayr

(Austria, 2023) 4:04 minutes

Shake Stew – Lila

A grainy greyscale image of a dancer posing on a rocky hilltop. She wears a dress and arches backwards, holding a long piece of fabric above her head. The fabric blows behind her in the wind.

Nature, body, and mind come into enigmatic and cathartic dialogue in the experimental documentary short “Immortals.”

Mark Durand

Elizabeth Crispo

(Canada, 2023) 5:28 minutes

Immortals

A shirtless man stands on a glacier. His arms are outstretched, hands facing outwards, and his mouth is wide open in a scream.

Flashing between a frozen landscape and two bodies in confrontation, “CRACK” explores parallels in the natural and human worlds.

Meng Hsueh Ho

Po Cheng Tsai

(Taiwan, 2023) 9:06 minutes

CRACK

Tall bird's eye view of a person wearing a beige colored dress that extends all the way to the edges of the frame on all sides of the image. They lean back and hold the dress, pulling it taut.

“Perfect Storm” finds a lone dancer struggling against confinement in a landscape of relentless tension and futility.

RJ Muna

RJ Muna

(United States, 2024) 3:28 minutes

Perfect Storm

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A child sits in a classroom, gazing solemnly into the camera lens. Behind him are his classmates standing on and sitting at desks. On holds his arms to his sides, index fingers pointed upwards. Another has his hands together in a praying position, eyes closed.

Caravane

A group of nine dancers in sunglasses cluster around one seated in a chair with orange sunglasses and long nails. They all wear vintage 70s clothes in earth tones and are indoors on a wooden stage.

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A dancer in a yellow knitted top leans to the side slightly, her hands in front of her chest, elbows out to the side and her eyes closed. She stands outside in between cement walls, and in the sky behind her puffy white clouds.

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A person in a black and white suit stands on a sandy beach in a center lunge, both the sand and their hair blowing wildly in the wind. The dancer is pointing a finger out to the side, into the wind.

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