Film for Invisible Ink, case no. 142: Abbreviation for Dead Winter [Diminished by 1,794]

We begin with two very rare film projection performances by Christian Farrell from silt, the late legendary group. Working in the Bay Area of San Francisco, this trio of fellow film alchemists was highly regarded by Phil Solomon. ARBOS: “Through elemental exposure and tinctures derived from berries, rainwater, pinecones, soil and bark, the work engages the perennial Hermetic aim: the spiritualisation of matter and the materialisation of spirit” writes Farrell. EMERALD PALACE “is filmed in a magical hotel just before its demolition.” Part of the FILM FOR INVISIBLE INK… series, David Gatten’s text-film acknowledges Solomon with “a long-distance dedication for a far-away friend half-way up the mountain, with words by Charles Darwin.” This film challenges the saccadic movements of the eyes with a hide and seek of legibility while making us conscious of the complex inner voice that belongs to each one of us as it reads “silently aloud.” MIDWEEKEND is an intricately edited found footage film breaking through hand painting in exuberant bursts, while THE MALTESE CROSS MOVEMENT is akin to a cinematic rebus illustrating mechanical movement and structural play. In Linda Izcali Scobie’s CRYSTAL PALACE, “two films align as a languid meditation on motion, colour, pattern and joy,” a rapturous collision course on ice. AGNUS DEI KINDER SYNAPSE shows a children’s amusement train circling in dream recurrences with talismanic creatures within earshot. FLORENCE: Eidolons, the world as semblance, as it seems to be and the emulsion where it has come to rest, exist mysteriously and interchangeably. TIME BEING is a work of fearlessly compassionate portraiture, as Gunvor Nelson engraves a heartfelt farewell to her mother with a stoic eye. A DEPRESSION IN THE BAY OF BENGAL: “I have made a film about travelling and living in a distant place which looks at aspects of daily life and where the war shadows the quotidian with a dark and rumbling step…”— Mark LaPore. (Mark McElhatten)

In the presence of Eve Heller (co-curator).
This film will be shown as part of the screenings THE PHANTOM ARCHIPELAGO.