1967 on view at Locks Gallery
Jan 13–Feb 25, 2012
Locks Gallery is pleased to present 1967, a multi-channel video installation by Nadia Hironaka and Matthew Suib, on view January 13th through February 25th, 2012. C. Spencer Yeh and Aaron Moore, who contributed to the piece, will perform live in the installation on Saturday, January 28th, at 5 pm. There will be a reception for the artists on Friday, February 3rd, from 5:30 to 7:30 pm.
Hironaka and Suib’s latest cinematic venture, 1967, comments on the roles of the artist and the revolutionary in the political and social realms of their times. An immersive, multi-channel installation, the work blends documentary, fiction, and experimental filmmaking.
Although cut-up and looped, the moving images reveal a narrative thread that follows the Mao-adoring female protagonist of Godard’s 1967 film La Chinoise. She heads to Montreal with the intent to disrupt the 1967 World Exposition and winds up witnessing an experimental film that simultaneously depicts past, present and future revolutions. Veronique narrates this string of events, shifting between polemic and meditations on the nature of cinema and filmmaking.
The montage is comprised of original video, archival footage from Montreal’s 1967 World Exposition and Shanghai’s 2010 World Exposition, Godard’s La Chinoise, YouTube-sourced footage of protests past and present, and rare films from China’s Cultural Revolution. It is no accident that Hironaka and Suib quote La Chinoise. The artists refer to1967 as an essay film, in the vein of Godard, but also Chris Marker. At the same time, their practice breaks up the usual cinema experience to take full advantage of the physicality of the gallery space.
A one-night performance will reunite the original live score performers, Brooklyn-based musicians C. Spencer Yeh and Aaron Moore, who will respond to the scattered moving images.
Nadia Hironaka and Matthew Suib have worked as artistic collaborators since 2008. Their installation Provisional Monument for the New Revolution, a panoramic moving image, was recently on view at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia.