Variations: Projector Performances by Madison Brookshire & Tomonari Nishikawa

Details:

Variations: Projector Performances by Madison Brookshire & Tomonari Nishikawa

RSVP 

Film artists Madison Brookshire and Tomonari Nishikawa delve deeply into the fundamental properties of the cinematic medium, coaxing meditative and transportive experiences from the rudiments of light, frame, screen, projector, and emulsion. For this evening of expanded cinema and live performance, Brookshire and Nishikawa will each present hypnotic new works that activate 16mm projectors in unconventional ways. Brookshire’s Double or Nothing (2022, 25 min) and No. 1, 2022 (2022, 12 min) explore the thresholds of perception through superimposed projections with and without film. In Six Seventy-Two Variations, Variation 3 (For Charles) (2023, 30 min), Nishikawa uses wood-carving tools to etch onto a piece of looped film, producing astonishing sound-image interactions in real-time. While dramatically different in technique and effect, the elemental light and sound works of these two artists complement each other like day and night.

Following the screening, Brookshire and Nishikawa will appear for a conversation about their work.

Program:

Madison Brookshire, Double or Nothing (2022)

Performance for two 16mm projectors, harmonium, sine tone, and voice, approx. 25 min

Madison Brookshire, No. 1, 2022 (2022)

One 16mm film on six reels, overlapping projection, color, sound, approx. 12 min

Tomonari Nishikawa, Six Seventy-Two Variations, Variation 3 (For Charles) (2023)

16mm film projection performance, about 30 min

About the artists:

Madison Brookshire lives in Los Angeles, where he makes films, paintings, and performances. His work invites viewers to become aware of perceptual processes and the sensuous experience of time. He frequently collaborates with musicians and composers, including Ezra Buchla, LCollective, Laura Steenberge, Mark So, and Tashi Wada. His work has shown at Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival, Anthology Film Archives, Artists’ Television Access, Human Resource, ISSUE Project Room, Los Angeles Filmforum, The Lab, Light Field, Microscope Gallery, and REDCAT, among others. His awards include being named a 2023 Guggenheim Fellow in Fine Arts, a Rema Hort Mann Foundation Emerging Artist Grant, and being an Artist in Residence at the Hammer Museum and Echo Park Film Center.

www.madisonbrookshire.com/work

Tomonari Nishikawa explores the idea of documenting situations/phenomena through a chosen medium and technique, often focusing on the process itself. His films have been screened at numerous film festivals and other screening venues, including Berlinale, Edinburgh International Film Festival, Hong Kong International Film Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam, London Film Festival, Media City Film Festival, New York Film Festival, Singapore International Film Festival, and Toronto International Film Festival. He presented a series of 8mm and 16mm films at MoMA P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, and his film installation, Building 945, received the Grant Award from the Museum of Contemporary Cinema in Spain. He is currently teaching in the Cinema Department at Binghamton University.

http://www.tomonarinishikawa.com/

Contact The Block Museum of Art for more information: (847) 491-4000 or email us at block-museum@northwestern.edu