Public Programme: Anthony McCall: Drawing with Light

ARTIST TALK
Early Work and Late Work and Nothing In Between
Anthony McCall presents an illustrated lecture on his work.

Denis and Verna Adam Auditorium, City Gallery Wellington
Wednesday 24 February 2010
6pm

On the occasion of his exhibition at the Adam Art Gallery, Anthony McCall: Drawing with Light, New York-based artist Anthony McCall will present a lecture that canvasses the works he produced in London and New York in the 1970s and his practice since 2001, in which he has returned to the ‘solid light’ form to create installations that utilise projected light in space. Crossing between these two bodies of work, McCall will reflect on what it means to shift film from image production in time to sculptural manipulation in space; the consequences of which he is still exploring today. This is a rare opportunity to hear a pioneer of expanded cinema speak about his work and to engage with an artist who is gaining widespread critical attention for his interrogation of the film medium and its wider implications for art practice in general.

BUS TOUR
Adam Art Gallery, City Gallery Wellington and TheNewDowse, invite you to take the Art Bus connecting three International Arts Festival visual art programmes across Wellington.

Commencing from the City Gallery, Wellington
Saturday 6 March 2010
10-1pm

Short on time and transport, but want to see some world class art? Hop on the Art Bus this Festival Season and let us take you to three outstanding international art exhibitions in just three hours. Starting and finishing at City Gallery Wellington the tour takes in Janet Cardiff’s immersive sound piece Forty Part Motet. This is followed by leading video artist Bill Viola’s The Messenger at TheNewDowse, and finishes at Victoria University’s Adam Art Gallery, where you will encounter Anthony McCall’s extraordinary immersive ‘solid light films’ and related works. Curators will be on hand at each venue to offer insights into each work.

PERFORMANCE
Special performance of Line Describing a Cone in conjunction with the New Zealand Film Archive

Wellington Town Hall
Monday 15 March 2010
Performance commences promptly at 7pm

Line Describing a Cone (1973) is famous in the history of avant-garde film for its reduction of the cinematic experience to its core ingredients: projected light in physical space. For 30 minutes a beam of light from a 16mm film projector draws a perfect circle on a distant screen. In the space between, a solid cone takes shape as light particles cling to a haze filled room. Transforming the viewer’s usual passive relation to the film medium, this work invites an active engagement with the cinematic experience.

FILM SCREENING
Messages from the Co-op: British Avant-garde Film 1967-76
An evening of British avant-garde film of the 1960s and 1970s, introduced by Mark Williams, Curator, New Zealand Film Archive.

Mediatheatre, New Zealand Film Archive
84 Taranaki Street
Wednesday 31 March and Thursday 1 April 2010
7pm

The 1960s and 1970s were a defining period for artists’ film and video. As collective and informal groups flourished worldwide, personal film makers were challenging cinematic convention. In England, much of the innovation took place at the London Film-Makers’ Co-operative, an artist-led organisation that incorporated a distribution agency, projection and film workshop.

In search of new and critical ways of working with film, several of the Co-op artists made the materiality of celluloid their subject. Other works undercut audience expectations for cinematic escapism with duration, repetition and humour. This programme collects several films which embody the critical and creative spirit that informed the work of Anthony McCall and his contemporaries.

This special screening of filmic explorations has been brought to New Zealand courtesy of LUX, London. Duration 60 minutes.

FILM SCREENING
“Are you making sculpture or are you making films?”
A curated screening of film works that document sculptural encounters in the city, introduced by Laura Preston, Assistant Curator, Adam Art Gallery.

Mediatheatre, New Zealand Film Archive
84 Taranaki Street
Thursday 15 April 2010
7pm

As a direct homage to Anthony McCall’s ‘solid light film’ Line Describing a Cone (1973) the film document of American artist Gordon Matta-Clark’s sculptural intervention Conical Intersect (1975) is a fascinating study on urban re-development, the power of architecture and the loss of community. This 16mm film will be shown along with the works of British film maker John Smith and German duo Clemens von Wedermeyer and Maya Schweizer. Like McCall, these artists question what cinema can be. They also test documentary conventions and use the architectural spaces of the city as a stage for weaving historical and socio-economic narratives. This programme will be a unique opportunity to consider what film offers both as a moving document and as a form of sculptural practice.

HOW DO WE MAKE OURSELVES A STUDENT BODY WITHOUT ORGANS?
Victoria Student Media Lecture Series

Foucault, Ethics & Fearless Speech
Tony Schirato
(Associate Professor, School of English Film Theatre and Media Studies, MA (Sydney) PhD (Sydney))
Adam Art Gallery
Tuesday 23 March 2010
5pm

“The Groundings with my Brothers”: Knowledge Production Outside of the Academy in the Academy
Robbie Shilliam
(Senior Lecturer, School of History, Philosophy, Political Science and International Relations, MA (Sussex) DPhil (Sussex))
Adam Art Gallery
Monday 29 March 2010
5pm

Students, the University, Social Contestation, and the ‘60s
Chamsy El-Ojeili
(Senior Lecturer, School of Social and Cultural Studies, MA (Hons) PhD (Massey))
Adam Art Gallery
Wednesday 21 April 2010
5pm

Nomad Thought, Global Capital and The War Machine in Deleuze and Guattari
Robert Deuchars
(Lecturer, School of History, Philosophy, Political Science and International Relations, MA (City U London), PhD (VUW))
Adam Art Gallery
Thursday 22 April 2010
5pm