Ken Jacobs at tank.tv

KEN JACOBS
Online at www.tank.tv
1 October - 30 November 2008

Ken Jacobs has been active as a filmmaker, performer and teacher for the past five decades. Rigorous and dedicated, his work is characterised by a keen eye for formal composition and a fierce political consciousness.

The exhibition at tank.tv presented a portfolio of 20 works covering 50 years of Ken Jacobs’ artistic production from 1957 to the present day, and is now available in the tank.tv archive.

Razzle Dazzle: The Lost World (Ken Jacobs, 2006)

As a central figure of the generation that defined independent filmmaking during the post-War era, Ken Jacobs contributed to the liberation of cinema from technical and ideological conventions. Beginning in the 1950s, he developed an ‘urban guerrilla cinema’ out of poverty and desperation, shooting improvised routines on city streets. The early works Star Spangled to Death, Little Stabs at Happiness and Blonde Cobra feature a nascent Jack Smith, years before the renegade artist produced his own films.

Having lived in New York all his life, the changing character of the city has been a strong presence throughout Jacobs’ work, from his manipulation of vintage street scenes in New York Ghetto Fishmarket 1903, through to the diaristic video Circling Zero: We See Absence, which observes the aftermath of the attack on the World Trade Center, a few blocks away from Jacobs’ home. The Sky Socialist was shot in a deserted neighbourhood (long since decommissioned) below the Brooklyn Bridge in the 1960s, and Perfect Film uses raw television news reports on the assassination of Malcolm X.

Star Spangled To Death (Ken Jacobs, 1957-59/2004)

Found or archival footage is a source for much of Jacobs’ work. In Star Spangled to Death, entire appropriated films contribute to an accumulative denunciation of American politics, religion, war and racism, whereas an analytical approach to reclaiming cinema’s past was originated in Tom, Tom the Pipers’ Son by re-filming selected details of a theatrical production dating from 1905. This same footage has lately been digitally excavated in Return to the Scene of the Crime.

The technique of unlocking aspects of film material that would otherwise pass unnoticed is the essence of the live Nervous System pieces that Jacobs has performed with two adapted projectors since the mid-1970s. Repetition and pulsing flicker teases frozen images into impossible depth and perpetual motion (demonstrated in New York Street Trolleys 1900), a process further developed by the Eternalism system of editing used in many recent videos. The previously ephemeral live performances Ontic Antics Starring Laurel and Hardy; By Molly! and Two Wrenching Departures are amongst the works that take on new life in their digital form.

Two Wrenching Departures (Ken Jacobs, 2006)

A contemporary of Stan Brakhage, Bruce Conner and Jonas Mekas, Ken Jacobs is one of the true innovators of the moving image, who continues his radical practice in the present. Though his images frequently depict bygone eras, the works are resolutely contemporary, displaying a vitality and ingenuity that is rarely matched.

Programme :-
The Whirled (1956-63), Star Spangled To Death (1957-59/2004), Little Stabs At Happiness (1958-63), Blonde Cobra (1959-63), The Sky Socialist (1964-65), Tom, Tom, The Piper's Son (1969-71), The Doctor's Dream (1978), Perfect Film (1985), Flo Rounds A Corner (1999), New York Street Trolleys 1900 (1999), Circling Zero: We See Absence (2002), Krypton Is Doomed (2005), Let There Be Whistleblowers (2005), Ontic Antics Starring Laurel And Hardy; Bye, Molly! (2005), The Surging Sea Of Humanity (2006), Capitalism: Child Labor (2006), New York Ghetto Fishmarket 1903 (2006), Two Wrenching Departures (2006), Razzle Dazzle: The Lost World (2006), Return To The Scene Of The Crime (2008)

Curated by Mark Webber.

After 30 November 2008, the exhibition will continue to be available in the tank.tv archive.

Ontic Antics with Laurel and Hardy; Bye, Molly! (Ken Jacobs, 2005)

ASK KEN

For the duration of the online show, tank.tv offers a unique opportunity for discussion with Ken Jacobs in an extended Q+A session. Email your questions to the artist at ken@tank.tv A regularly updated transcript of the dialogue will be online at www.tank.tv/askken

EVENTS

Friday 19 September 2008, at 7pm, Tate Modern, London
Return to the Scene of Crime (2008, 92 min)
An antique film print is probed, exploded and reconstituted in the digital domain with radical ingenuity and infectious wit. Screening as part of a weekend of tank.tv events at Tate.

Thursday 16 October 2008, at 9pm, BFI Southbank, London
& Sunday 19 October 2008, at 5pm, ICA Cinema, London
Momma’s Man (2008, 94 min). A feature film by Azazel Jacobs, starring and shot in the loft of his parents, Ken and Flo Jacobs. www.mommasman.com Screening in The Times BFI 52nd London Film Festival.

October/November, CAS Zuidas, Amsterdam
Capitalism: Child Labor (2006, 14 min), an animated deconstruction of a Victorian stereo photograph, will be regularly presented on the CASZ Contemporary Art Screen Zuidas on the Zuidplein in Amsterdam.

Sunday 2 November 2008, from 2pm-10pm, Chisenhale Gallery, London
Star Spangled to Death (1957-59/2004, 375 min). Celebrate the end of the Bush regime with a free screening of Ken Jacobs' episodic indictment of American politics, religion, war, racism and stupidity. Starring Jack Smith, Richard Nixon, Nelson Rockefeller, Al Jolson and a cast of thousands. Refreshments available. Presented by Whitechapel at the Chisenhale.

Saturday 29 November 2008, at 10:15pm, BFI IMAX, London
Ken Jacobs Nervous Magic Lantern live performance in collaboration with Eric La Casa, using pre-cinematic techniques to conjure abstract 3D forms on the immense IMAX screen. Part of the Kill Your Timid Notion tour (also performing in Bristol and Liverpool).

Sunday 30 November 2008, at 12:30pm, BFI Southbank, London
Ken Jacobs in Conversation. Kill Your Timid Notion presents a discussion with the artist to follow on from the previous night’s performance.

Tank Magazine, 10th Anniversary Issue (on sale now)
Ken Jacobs discusses Star Spangled to Death with Mark Webber, and contributes “Failed State” an article on contemporary American politics.

www.tank.tv