Artist Statement
Threading through all of my interdisciplinary artwork is an insistence on simple means, humble materials, and a modest scale that emphasizes time, attention, and awareness. Binding these diverse works together is the persistent need to distill the work, concentrate its effect, and create an experience aspiring to the emotional complexity and richness of life.
In “Passage,” a collaboration with composer Tashi Wada, symmetrical 16mm films overlap to produce colors, sounds and structures not found in either individual film. Over the course of 13 minutes, twin violin canons create an arc of sound, buzzing with dissonance, as a slowly shifting field of color evolves. The experience invites viewers to engage multiple modes of time and attention.
“’The Casual Drift’ by Mark So” is a 35mm slide installation documenting an ongoing, site specific “performance”–a piece of graph paper hung over a hole in the wall of my studio. Photographing the traces of light on the paper at different times of day preserves these spectral occurrences while also emphasizing the fleetingness and fragility of this encounter.
The “Dedication Drawings” are a series of abstract drawings whose simple, repeated gestures result in shimmering optical phenomena hovering just slightly above the page. Each drawing represents a personal encounter with an artist and his or her work, serving as both a tribute and a record of the effect that person has had on me. This and my next series of drawings use simple strategies relying on predetermined structures to generate compositions that both become objects of reflection and receptacles for time.
I am currently working on a hand-made “film painting” by soaking lengths of 16mm film in acrylic inks and urine, allowing evaporation, dust, crystallization, mold, and more to produce the image. The overworked strips of film–soaked in successive pigments, scraped and then soaked again–result in a moving palimpsest. Many layers and textures are visible at once, each moving with a unique rhythm. Interacting with the course of Tashi Wada’s music, these separate streams of information respond unpredictably, highlighting particular moments and gestures which then fade back into the overall composition. There is an affective quality to the excesses of the imagery and like blues music or certain forms of free jazz, it is both repetitive and ecstatic.
EDUCATION
2007
MFA California Institute of the Arts, Film/Video
2002
BA Binghamton University, Cinema, Philosophy
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2011
This Goes Out, curated by John Hastings, Presents Gallery, New York, NY
nothing is accomplished, curated by Erika Vogt, ACP @ Parker Jones, Los Angeles, CA
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS & SCREENINGS
2012
The Artist Theater Program, curated by Erika Vogt, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA
A Color Box, curated by Leo Goldsmith and Rachael Rakes, Heliopolis, New York, NY
Migrating Forms, curated by Kevin McGarry and Nellie Killian, Anthology Film Archives, New York, NY
Transparent Cities, REDCAT, Los Angeles, CA
Spectral Landscape (with Viewing Stations), curated by Pamela Fraser and John Neff, Gallery 400, Chicago, IL
Passage, the wulf., Los Angeles, CA
Experimental Tuesdays, curated by Ross Nugent, Union Theater, Milwaukee, WI
Frequency Spectrums, curated by Paul Clipson, Artists’ Television Access, San Francisco, CA
New Musics, curated by Claudia Meza, Time-Based Art Festival, Portland, OR
Onion City Experimental Film and Video Festival, curated by Patrick Friel, Chicago Filmmakers, Chicago, IL
Reckon the Earth, curated by Madison Brookshire, Artists’ Television Access, San Francisco, CA
Migrating Forms, curated by Kevin McGarry and Nellie Killian, Anthology Film Archives, New York, NY
Telephone, curated by Max Presneil, Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, CA
An Evening with Madison Brookshire, USC, Los Angeles, CA
The International Experimental Film Exposition, ICA, Boston, MA
The Artists’ Theater, curated by Erika Vogt, REDCAT, Los Angeles, CA
2010
An Evening of Minimal and Abstract Sounds and Film, The Lab, San Francisco, CA
Tashi Wada & Madison Brookshire, Life Changing Ministry, Oakland, CA
Madison Brookshire and Tashi Wada with Mark So, the wulf., Los Angeles, CA
Wavelengths, curated by Andrea Picard, Toronto International Film Festival, Toronto, ON
Madison Brookshire: New 16mm Films, Spool MFG., Binghamton, NY
East Hollywood Street Series, the wulf., Los Angeles, CA
2009
Transparent Cities, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Madison Brookshire: Film and Video, the wulf., Los Angeles, CA
2008
Open: High Space, curated by Christopher May, TIE (The International Experimental Cinema Exposition), Paonia, CO
2007
4’33” and Beyond, curated by Michael Pisaro, REDCAT, Los Angeles, CA
First Sight Scene, curated by Jaimie Baron, Los Angeles Filmforum, Los Angeles, CA
Openings, curated by Andy Ditzler, Eyedrum, Atlanta, GA
2006
TIE (The International Experimental Cinema Exposition), curated by Christopher May, Denver, CO
2005
TIE (The International Experimental Cinema Exposition), curated by Christopher May, Denver, CO
Onion City Experimental Film and Video Festival, curated by Patrick Friel, Chicago Filmmakers, Chicago, IL
2004
Film Show, The Roberson Museum, Binghamton, NY
2003
Exploding Cinema, Rotterdam International Film Festival, Rotterdam, NL
2002
Views From the Avant-Garde, curated by Mark McElhatten and Gavin Smith, New York Film Festival, New York, NY
Onion City Experimental Film and Video Festival,” curated by Patrick Friel, Chicago Filmmakers, Chicago, IL
Robert(a) Beck Memorial Cinema, New York, NY
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
2012
Liz Kotz, “Back to Basics. On Madison Brookshire and Tashi Wada at the wulf., Los Angeles,” Text Zur Kunst, June, 249-252.
2011
Fred Camper, “Onion City Experimental Film and Video Festival: start peeling,” Chicago Reader, June 23.
Colin Beckett and Jason Livingston, “Blurred Boundaries: Selections from Migrating Forms 2011,” The Brooklyn Rail, July-August.
Nicholas Rapold, “Together Again”, Artforum.com, June 22,
Michael Ned Holte, “Reviews: ‘ACP,’ Parker Jones,” Artforum, March: 275-276.
William E. Jones, “Artist Curated Projects,” Mousse, Feb-Mar: 158.
2008
Fred Camper, “Onion City Experimental Film and Video Festival,” Chicago Reader, June 17.
AWARDS & FELLOWSHIPS
2013
Artist in Residence, Echo Park Film Center
2012
ARC grant from the Center for Cultural Innovation
2008-9
Artist in Residence, Hammer Museum
2004-7
The Ahmanson Foundation Scholarship, California Institute of the Arts
2005
Kodak Grant, California Institute of the Arts
2002
Cinema Fellowship, Binghamton University
Highest Honors, Cinema, Binghamton University
Foundation Award for Creative Work in Fine Arts, Cinema, Binghamton University
2001
Ken Jacobs Scholarship in Cinema, Binghamton University
PUBLICATIONS
2011
“Uncommon Knowledge: Mark So’s Text Scores”, Open Space, Issue 12/13, Fall 2010/Winter 2011.
2010
“Los Angeles in Theory and Practice: Thom Andersen’s Los Angeles Plays Itself.” Bright Lights Film Journal, Issue 68: May, 2010.
2009
“A Universe Inside a Universe: Synecdoche, New York.” Bright Lights Film Journal, Issue 63: February, 2009.