Set 2: Entropicalia and Exotica
Continuing our series of short art films and 'found footage', this week we'll be showing the second instalment of Wayne Burrows residency at Crate Diggin'.
Friday 9 January 2015 7-11pm Rough Trade Cafe Bar, Broad Street, Nottingham.
Free Entry.
Biological Camouflage: Entropicalia
(Wayne Burrows/The Soundcarriers, 2013)
Something of an experiment, this film is made up of still collages from various iterations of the 'Biological Camouflage' series, made by fictional British artist Robert Holcombe between 1974 and 1978, set to music by The Soundcarriers, then punctuated with a short, repeated animated photo-sequence of a sleeping woman. The song – to whose propulsive rhythm the images are cut, is 'Entropicalia' from 'The Other World of The Soundcarriers', issued on The Great Pop Supplement during 2013 (a vocal version of the track is available as the title track on the band’s first release on the Ghost Box label, released in May 2014).
Afro Mood (c.1947)
A short burlesque film in which the dancer Amalia Aguilar pulls some incredible moves to some hot Afro-Cuban jazz. ‘Afro Mood’ is one of two numbers that she also performed in a movie entitled ‘A Night at the Follies’ (1947) which perhaps helps to date this particular clip, which was produced as part of an ‘exotic’ series, ‘Joe Bonica presents the Movie of the Month’, possibly intended for viewing as individual segments on reels sold for private entertainment and parties.
Exotica Fragment (Wayne Burrows/Paul Isherwood, 2014)
A very short loop of re-edited footage from a variety of public domain sources, ranging from a 1920s adaptation of The Lost World to undersea documentaries, Cheerios commercials, burlesque films, a study of ants and an advertisement for a wall street consultancy. The score includes an incantation from an Egyptian son-et-lumiere recording of the 1960s and an early sketch of a track made by Paul Isherwood for a forthcoming project, Exotica Suite, set to be released as a book, vinyl LP and series of films in late June 2015, financially supported by New Art Exchange and Arts Council England.
If you are unfamiliar with Wayne's work, here is a short piece he produced for a recent project that briefly describes his work.