Art Theory & Practice

Friday, February 6, 7:00 PM
O’er the Land
(Deborah Stratman, 2008, U.S., 52 minutes, 16mm)
Fresh from its premiere at the 2008 Sundance festival, O’er the Land is a meditation on role of technology in American myth and history. This collage is interrupted by the story of Col. William Rankin, who in 1959 ejected from his fighter jet at 48,000 feet only to be trapped for 45 minutes in the up and down drafts of a massive thunderstorm. (Amazingly, he survived.) Deborah Stratman is a Chicago-based artist and filmmaker whose work in various media plies the territory between experimental and documentary genres, whether it is set in Xinjiang China or rural Iceland. Proceeded by The Paranormal Trilogy (Stratman, 2005–7, 11 minutes, video and 16mm). Co-sponsored by Block Cinema and the Northwestern University Department of Art Theory & Practice.

Thursday, March 5, 7:00 PM
A Talk by Dan Graham
Dan Graham, born in Urbana, Illinois, has been a central figure in contemporary art since the 1960s — from his early conceptual pieces to his disorienting glass pavilions to his film on the connections between rock and roll and the Shaker religion. Noted for his humor and intelligence, Graham has worked in a wide variety of media: still photography, film and video, architectural models, indoor and outdoor pavilions, conceptual projects for magazine pages, drawings and prints. A major retrospective of his work opens in February at L.A.’s MoCA and will travel to the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. Co-sponsored by Block Cinema and the Northwestern University Department of Art Theory & Practice.