19 January 2010: Michael Robinson – 8 Films
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Tuesday 19 January 2010 8pm
"Robinson's collaged films thus do double duty: while pointing to the mechanisms of mediation and manufactured sentiment, he unlocks the power popular images exercise over our psychological and emotional makeup, reconfiguring them in a way that is funny but not ironic, sincere but not naïve, heartfelt but not sentimental." -- Henriette Huldisch Followed by a Q&A with the artist Venue: BGWMCTickets: £5 / £3 Close-Up members |
Programme Notes
And We All Shine On
“An ill wind is transmitting through the lonely night, spreading deception and myth along its murky path, singing the dangers of the mediated spirit.” -- Michael Robinson
If There Be Thorns
“A dark wave of exile, incest, and magic burns across the tropics, forging a knotted trail into the black hole. Three star-crossed siblings wander in search of one another as a storm of purple prose and easy listening slowly engulfs them.” -- Michael Robinson
Hold Me Now
“Plagued by blindness, sloth, and operatic devotion, a troubled scene from Little House On The Prairie offers itself up to karaoke exorcism.” -- Michael Robinson
You Don't Bring Me Flowers
“Viewed at its seams, a slideshow of National Geographic landscapes from the 1960's and 70's deforms into a bright white distress signal.” -- Michael Robinson
Light Is Waiting
“A very special episode of television's Full House devours itself from the inside out, excavating a hypnotic nightmare of a culture lost at sea. Tropes of video art and family entertainment face off in a luminous orgy neither can survive.” -- Michael Robinson
The General Returns From One Place To Another
“Shaping a concurrently indulgent and sceptical experience of the beautiful, the film draws an uneasy balance between the romantic and the horrid. A Frank O'Hara monologue (from a play of the same title) attempts to undercut the sincerity of the landscape, but there are stronger forces surfacing.” -- Michael Robinson
All Through The Night
“A charred visitation with an icy language of control: "there is no room for love". Splinters of Nordic fairy tales and ecological disaster films are ground down into a shimmering prism of contradictions in this hopeful container for hopelessness.” -- Michael Robinson
Victory Over The Sun
“Dormant sites of past World's Fairs breed an eruptive struggle between spirit and matter, ego and industry, futurism and failure. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory; nothing lasts forever even cold November rain.” -- Michael Robinson
