Two films part of "Ritual of rented island: object theater, loft performance, and the new psychodrama - Manhattan 1970-1980"
Currently on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art through February 2, "Ritual of rented island: object theater, loft performance, and the new psychodrama - Manhattan 1970-1980" is an absorbing exhibition focused on a number of prime performance artists who populated Lower Manhattan in the 1970s. Their shows were staged in lofts, storefronts, artist spaces, music clubs, and venues like The Kitchen and Anthology in our early SoHo days. This linked screening series includes videos, films, and documentation from artists of the era and features many pieces not on view in the exhibit. Today at 7:15 pm "The camera: Je or La camera: I" (1977, 88 min, 16mm) a film by Babette Mangolte. As a photographer, Babette Mangolte captured many of the iconic images that today define performance in the 1970s. As a cinematographer and filmmaker, she has produced a singular body of work as invested in formal structures as it is in performance, and graced by her always-amazing sense of composition. At 9:15 pm "News from home" (1977, 89 min, 16mm-to-digital video) Chantal Akerman. It is a poetic long-take exploration of distance and proximity, landscape and local atmosphere. Letters from Akerman's mother are read while we witness New York as it will never be seen again, recent history that increasingly feels like the ancient past. A stand-out from Akerman that features yet more superb camera work by Babette Mangolte.