Panel discusses the fusion of film, museums
By MariaSan Filippo
Nov. 18, 2002 9:00 p.m.
Films are usually seen in dark theaters, but new artists want to
take that experience into the museum.
“Can you make the museum into a comfortable viewing
space?” said Santa Monica Museum of Art curator Elsa
Longhauser. “Some think it’s very inhospitable to
expect people who come to museums to watch films.”
UCLA film professor Peter Wollen will take part in a panel about
how film can function in a museum, “Neither Here Nor There:
Art & Film in the Age of Anxiety,” at the SMMoA tonight
at 7:00 p.m.
The panel takes place in conjunction with the museum’s
Guest Curator Series. This year’s guest is Chrissie Iles,
film and video curator of New York’s Whitney Museum of
American Art. Iles will serve as moderator on the panel.
“At this moment in art and cultural history, film and
video have entered the dialogue in a very major way,”
Longhauser said. “We felt it was important to bring that
dialogue to Los Angeles, home of the film industry and to so many
artists working within the film medium.”
Participating with Wollen on Tuesday’s panel is artist
Jeremy Blake, curator Heidi Zuckerman-Jacobson and filmmaker/artist
Morgan Fisher.
The SMMoA exhibit, which addresses the social, cultural, and
political upheavals in the United States, India and Israel,
displays the work of six artists selected from the 2002 Whitney
Biennial’s film and video roster.
“We have in common that we’re all interested in new
uses for film,” Blake said.
Blake’s piece, “Chemical Sundown,” is on
display at SMMoA and represents what the discussion will be about.
“Chemical” uses new images and found footage taken from
the film “Casino Royale” to create a 12 minute digital
video that interacts with the gallery lighting. This creates unique
colorscapes, which Blake says were inspired by the visual effects
of L.A. smog.
Wollen, who teaches in the critical studies program of the
department of film, television & digital media, is legendary
within the field of film studies for his 1969 study of film
structuralism, “Signs and Meanings in the Cinema.”
“Wollen’s breadth in understanding art history is so
deep, he’ll be a great contributor to the panel,”
Longhauser said.
In addition to his work as a teacher and scholar, Wollen is
noted for having been a founding editor of the seminal British film
journal Screen and for having co-written the screenplay for
Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1975 film, “The
Passenger,” starring Jack Nicholson.
“Each participant is interested in the evolution of the
film medium,” Longhauser said, “and they each have a
different perspective on the way that medium functions and how it
should be presented.”
Admission for the panel discussion is $5 for members and
students and $8 for non-members. The exhibit will continue until
Dec. 29. Admission to SMMoA is free; the museum is closed on
Sundays and Mondays.
