Abstract Video Workshop

Walerian Borowczyk: Experimental and Expanded Film/ Video

Walerian Borowczyk (September 2, 1923 – February 3, 2006) was a Polish film director. He directed 40 films between 1946 and 1988. His career as a film director was mainly in France.

Born in Kwilcz, he studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, then devoted himself to painting and lithography, including the creation of posters for the cinema, which earned him a national prize in 1953. In 1959, he settled in Paris.

His early films were surreal animations, some only a few seconds long, including several comic abecedaria (letter lists). His most acclaimed early films were Był sobie raz (Time Upon a Once) (1957) and Dom (House) (1958, with Jan Lenica).

His influence can be seen in the work of Jan Svankmajer and The Quay Brother:

Visit to Manchester

A = The Whitworth Art Gallery, http://www.whitworth.manchester.ac.uk/
Dark Matters

Air Pressure

Oxford Trip

A = Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology

B = Modern Art Oxford Cafe and Bar

C = Pitt Rivers Museum 

At the Ashmolean, (http://www.ashmolean.org/) I was particularly interested in the Lower ground sculptures of the Human image.

Master ES 

Consolation through confidence (from the Ars Moriendi)

Cast of the Aphrodisias Fisherman 

Double sided mummy portrait 

c.AD 100

Cycladic figure

Raphael (Raffaello Santi 1483 - 1520)

Studies of the heads of two apostles and their hands

Modern Art Oxford, (http://www.modernartoxford.org.uk/) I liked the conceptual installations.

Kerry Tribe 

Dead Star Light (still)

Abraham Cruzvillegas 

Autoconstruccion: The Optimistic Failure of a Simultaneous Promise

Pitt Rivers Museum, (http://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/) I liked the tribal photography.

Portrait of a thirteen year old Hopi girl named Modisi

Schomovi, Arizona, US

Photography by John Hillers 1879

Video installation by Sedira

After her boyfriend split up with her, Zineb Sedira produced the video 'Don't do to her what you did to me' of 8 minutes in 1998- 2000. In which she ripped up her diary, soaked it into water (see the still below) and ate it.

In response, I ripped up my old diary aswell, but instead of consuming it, I recycled it and made a new diary.

I didn't completely blitz the paper, as the little snippets of words give the audience clues and a sense of mystery.