Marc Arthur News

The latest incarnation of The Key took place as part of the MIX festival.  Performers were Gage Boone, Stephen Boyer and I.  All images courtesy Ava Hassinger.

Recently Peter Cramer, Jack Waters and I were invited to collaborate and present new work at FRISE in Hamburg.  In addition to the exhibition, we did a performance and screened new videos.  Here are some images of various elements from the project titled “Triple Threat”.

Kembra Pfahler and Mike Kuchar are two of my favorite people. And, they have collaborated on a number of projects together. There is something especially messy, uncanny and sick about their film “Purgatory Junction”. A profound dark melodrama haunts all of the characters in this epic soap opera. Kembra stars as the fantastically tortured teen delinquent daughter of a tired porn star who orchestrates her child’s rape.

Mike actually bestowed Kembra’s band with their name: The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black. The bands performances are brutal and spectacular. One of my favorite acts is when eggs are smashed on Kembra’s vagina and ooze out colored paint. After Mike saw one of the bands early performances he mentioned to Kembra that it was like seeing “the voluptuous horror of Karen Black”. History was written.

Mike has one of the best vocabularies around; check out his intro in the bands c.d. book.

Mike was kind enough to lend me some pictures of him and Kembra from their days in the golden 80’s of New York.

Polaroid of Kembra and Mike

Cover for one The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black early albums.

Mike’s intro to the band (and Kembra’s vagina sewn up)

Paint filled eggs being cracked on Kembra’s vagina

Mike at train station in Berlin

“Undetectable In Berlin”
2009, 28 minutes, video. U.S. Premiere
Culled from the actions of an artists’ residency in Berlin. A sub-theme for the Berlin occupation was “Undetectable”: an infection whose presence is assumed, but whose physical detection is untraceable by scientific means.
Total running time: ca. 70 minutes.

“The Education of Abou Ben Adhem”
2009, 16.5 minutes, video. Made in collaboration with Marc Arthur. World premiere
Showing ways in which cultures clash by positioning the impressionistic figure of an imaginary Islamic nationalist torn between his love of erotic poetry and the need to defend his heritage against the very Western influences that are his material resources for said defense.

http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/schedule/search/film/?id=9371

I’ve been developing a new project called “The Key” at David Cunningham Projects. Performance dates are: 4/31, 5/1, 5/10 and 5/30

Every performance is the expression of a single thought whose tentacles extend to enwrap gallery, performer and spectator in the necessity of its expression.  This thought is not simple but extends through ontology, phenomenology, aesthetics and metaphysics. It does not beg forgiveness for its complexity.  My process began with research on the Polish visual artist and theater practitioner Tadeusz Kantor.  Kantor believes that expression and speculation, not elucidation or understanding, are at the center of the artistic effort- both physically and ephemerally.

REVIEWS:

SFMOMA

Shotgun Review

Here are some photos from the opening.

All photo’s © 2009 Franz Schnaas (http://franzschnaas.com)

George Kuchar, Mike Kuchar and Jacques Vallée

Me at Skywalker Ranch

1. Plan when to test your state
Pick five to ten different occasions during the day to test your state. These should be circumstances that are similar in some ways to your dreams. Any time you come in contact with something that resembles a dreamsign, test your state. Whenever anything surprising or unlikely occurs or anytime you experience unusually powerful emotions, or anything dream like, test your state. If you have recurrent dreams, any situations related to the recurrent content are ideal. For example, if you have recurrent dreams featuring your fear of heights, you should do a state test when you cross a bridge or visit a room near the top of a tall building.

2. Test you state
Ask yourself the critical question as often as possible (at least the five to ten specific times you selected in step one): “Am I dreaming or awake?” Don’t just automatically ask the question and mindlessly reply, “Obviously, I’m awake,” or you will do the same thing when you actually are dreaming. Look around for any oddities or inconsistencies that might indicate you are dreaming. Think back to the events of the last several minutes. Do you have any trouble remembering what just happened? If so, you may be dreaming.

From: Exploring the world of Lucid Dreaming: Stephen Laberge

“L’ Homo Venezia” by Peter Cramer and Marc Arthur

DV 2006 total running time: @ 9 min

Four inspirational vignettes made by Peter Cramer and Marc Arthur at the Emily Harvey Foundation Residency on the 2006 return to Venice for the development of “Pestilence”, the inter media opus in progress.

Millennium Film Workshop

66 East 4th St. NYC 10003

Saturday March 14th, 2009

8:00 PM

Admission $8.00

http://www.millenniumfilm.org/shows.html

In the course of this quest into the hidden limbo of my consciousness, I believed I felt explosions like the collision of occult stones or the sudden petrification of fires. Fires that would be like unconscious truths miraculously vitalized.

But you have to tread slowly on the road of dead stones, especially if you have lost understanding of words. It is an indescribable science which explodes by slow thrusts. And whoever possesses it doesn’t understand it. But the Angels also do not understand, for all true knowledge is obscure. Clear mind belongs to matter.