Maya Lin "Systematic Landscapes" at The Henry Museum : Apr 22 - Aug 3

Henry Art Museum Site



Havent always been consistently wowed with her installation work, though a good percentage def' has been innovative, atmospheric and deeply expressive in a way that reflects a consciously designed interpretation/reflection of/on nature and perception. This one both in style, technique and scale looks like its going to be an impressive landscape occupying the Henry's larger gallery. ("Avalanche" pictured above) Certainly worth giving it the time.

From the Henry Art Museum:

"This spring, the Henry devotes its expansive Stroum and East Galleries to a dramatic exhibition of new work by Maya Lin. Systematic Landscapes, organized by Henry Art Gallery Director Richard Andrews, focuses on a trio of large-scale sculptural installations that offer a different means for viewers to encounter and comprehend the landscape. 2x4 Landscape is a vast hill or wave built of 65,000 boards set on end; Wire Landscape, a distorted grid in space, can be walked under or viewed from above. Visitors can walk through Landscape, modeling an actual mountain range near the artist's Colorado home that is sliced into a grid."

"Maya Lin has continuously addressed notions of landscape and geologic phenomena in her work. She has an extraordinary ability to convey complex and poetic ideas using simple forms and natural matierals. She thinks and works in a scale that relates to the land. This exhibition is a meditation on our relationship to landscape, whether direct or reinterpreted via computer or satellite imagery. Wedding a deep interest in forces and forms of nature with a long-term investigation into the possibilities of sculptural form to embody meaning, Systematic Landscapes offers a rich, immersive experience for visitors. Following the model of previous Henry exhibitions of the work of Ann Hamilton and James Turrell, Systematic Landscapes confirms the museum's commitment to the art of our time and to the possibilities of contemporary installation art."

Lucile Hadzihalilovi's film "Innocence" at NWFF April 14-20

Northwest Film Forum Site

I'm gonna shut it for once and not say anything about this film, other than the fact that I will definitely be seeing it a second time in the theatre and it features some of the finest cinematography I've seen in something like a year ... and there's a helluva lot more to it than just that.

From the NWFF:

"An all-female boarding school sits in the middle of a seemingly endless forest, with a thick, insurmountable wall keeping the outside world from entering this otherworldly community. Inside one of the school's creaking houses, a group of young girls gather around a coffin: its lid opens, and six-year-old Iris climbs out. Iris is quickly introduced to the school's bizarre customs and strictly observed rules, but she grows boldly and perhaps dangerously rebellious as she becomes increasingly curious about the school's central mysteries (Where do the older girls go at night? What lies beyond the outer wall? Will any of them ever be allowed to leave?). A bracing debut from a major new figure in French cinema, the supernatural fairy tale of INNOCENCE has been a critical and audience favorite at festivals around the world."

"Boys & Flowers" Exhibition at Western Bridge Gallery : Mar 30 - Aug 12

Western Bridge Gallery Site

Kutlug Ataman: The Four Seasons of Veronica Read
Scott McFarland: Photographs
Jeffry Mitchell: New Installation
Paul Morrison: Mesophyte
Kirsten Stoltmann: Boys and Flowers
Universal Nonlinear Design: Make Believe
Stephen Vitiello: Hea - Sound Installation

Works by Nobuyoshi Araki, Morris Graves, Jim Lockwood, Robert Mapplethorpe, Roy McMakin, Cristina Lei Rodriguez, Glenn Rudolph, Michael Velliquette, Paul Wonner, Amir Zaki.

Titled after a video by Kirsten Stoltmann, Boys and Flowers features new commissions from Paul Morrison, Jeffry Mitchell, and Universal Nonlinear Design, a four-channel video installation by Kutlug Ataman, a sound installation by Stephen Vitiello, and a variety of botanical masculinity in photography and works on paper from the collection.

Covering all four walls of our large gallery, Morrison's mesophyte mixes naturalistic and cartoonish floral and landscape imagery. Stumps, firs, pulled weeds, garden flowers, set out of perspective with a continuous horizon line, create a thrillingly artificial world of nature.

Jeffry Mitchell's new installation juxtaposes a handmade Japanese byobu screen of molded paper with a vitrine containing ceramics in the vein of Chinese funerary sculpture—though this particular tomb is for a soon-to-be closed Seattle bathhouse, Club Zodiac.

Seattle architecture firm Universal Nonlinear Design presents a proposal to raise a section Seattle's Denny Park to its original height before the Regrade, some 60 feet above its current elevation. An architectural model is shown with work referring to the movie Parallax View and the work of Carl Andre and Michael Heizer.

Kutlug Ataman's Four Seasons of Veronica Read, a four-channel projected video installation, obsesses over an obsessive collector, an English woman who maintains nearly a thousand Amaryllis bulbs in her small London flat despite being seriously allergic to them.

Godard "The Cinema Alone" Series at NWFF Mar 17-22

NWFF Godard "Cinema Alone" Site



Yeah! Finally "Histoire(s) du Cinema" playing in Seattle.
This is the one that had a East Coast run last year and I was bummed it never made it to our little town.

From the NWFF site:

Throughout his career, no filmmaker has more consistently, or more adventurously, redefined our very conception of the cinema than Jean-Luc Godard. From his earth-shattering debut with BREATHLESS and the remarkable string of sketches, experiments and full-fledged masterpieces that followed, Godard has confirmed time and time again that not only is he the world's greatest living filmmaker, he's also the most dangerous. Godard parlayed the success of BREATHLESS into a career of hugely innovative, corrosively brilliant films that introduced a kind of poetry to the cinema unlike anything that came before it. More than any other filmmaker, Godard has continued to blaze forward, always searching for news to approach filmmaking with video being a particularly fertile source of inspiration. Northwest Film Forum is proud to celebrate the man and his work with the Seattle Premiere of his HISTOIRE(S) DU CINEMA, along with rare screenings of some of his most treasured works from throughout his career. All films in French with English subtitles.

Michael Haneke's new film "Cache" - playing at Landmark Theatres

Sony Pictures Classics "Cache" Site

This is it peeps! The new film by director Michael Haneke ("Piano
Teacher" & "Time of the Wolf" - one of my faves from last year) is
-FINALLY- playing stateside. I've seen a poor quality bootleg of it
and even in that diminished state of resolution/fidelity - it was one
of the better cinematic experiences I had all year. Haneke, the weird
lookin' dude that he is, won Best Director for this one at Cannes in 2005.

Now playing in NY and LA. Soon to be in San Francisco, Boston, Minneapolis
and Seattle (Jan. 27) Check back at the Landmark Theatres site for more city openings:

Landmark Theatres Release Schedule for "Hidden"

"When TV host Georges (Daniel Auteuil) begins to receive packages
containing videos of himself with his familyshot secretly from the
streethe becomes alarmed. Gradually, footage on the tapes becomes
more personal, suggesting the anonymous sender has known Georges for
some time. Although Georges feels a sense of menace hanging over his
family, the police refuse to help because no direct threat has been
made. A new thriller from writer/director Michael Haneke (The Piano
Teacher), co-starring Juliette Binoche. Winner of the Best Director
Award at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival."

Mikio Naruse Retrospective at NWFF - Jan 19 - Feb 26

Northwest Film Forum Naruse Site

Enduring Cinema of Mikio Naruse
January 19 - February 26, 2006
Advanced tickets and passes now on sale!
http://www.nwfilmforum.org

A multiple award-winner and frequent box office champ in Japan, a
titan among French cinéastes, and the first Japanese director to be
reviewed in The New York Times (14 years before Rashomon), Naruse
(1905-1969) still remains virtually unknown in this country, and
certainly not available on video.

"Northwest Film Forum is thrilled to be showing ten of Japanese Master
Naruse's heart-breakingly humanist films, most of which are newly
restored prints. Don't miss your chance to see Naruse's enduring and
proud post-WWII heroines (Geishas, Ginza bar hostesses, mothers, and
wives) survive the modernization of Japan."

:::: ALBUMS OF 2005 ::::

HERE ARE MY TOP ALBUMS OF 2005 IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER
---------------------------------------------------------------

Supersilent "7" (Rune Grammofon)
Elaine Radigue "Elemental II" (Rosa)
Tape "Rideau" (Hapna)
Hototogisu "Green" (Eclipse)
Mountains "Mountains" (Apestaartje)
Greg Davis/Sebastien Roux "Paquet Surprise" (Carpark)
V/A Shigeru Umebayashi "2046 Soundtrack" (EMI-UK)
Pierre Schaeffer "L'Oeuvre Musicale - reissue" (INA-GRM)
Iannis Xenakis "La Legende d'Eer - DVD" (Mode)
Ryoji Ikeda "Dataplex" (Raster-Noton)
SUNN O))) "Black One" (Southern Lord)
Tod Dockstader "Aerial - series" (SubRosa)
Alva Noto/Ryiuchi Sakamoto "Insen" (Raster-Noton)
David Sylvian/Bernd Friedmann/Morten Grønvad/Steve Jansen "Snow Borne Sorrow" (Samadhisound)
V/A "Small Melodies" (Spekk)
The Lappetites "Before the Libretto" (Quecksilber)
Stillupsteypa/BJNilsen "Vikinga Brennivin" (Helen Scarsdale Agency)
EARTH "Legacy of Dissolution - remixes" (No Quarter)
Birchville Cat Motel "Chi Vampires" (CPSIP)
Rova::Orchestrova "Electric Ascension" (Atavistic)
V/A "Archives GRM - box set" (INA-GRM)

Overall a pretty darn explorative year in sound - few things reallys stood out as "changing the history of sound as we know it", but there were many adventurous works that took the ears to exciting places and did so with degrees of virtuosity and distinction.
Favorite new genre/sound thats come around: Doom-Drone-Urmetal! (ala Boris, Sunn, Black Boned Angel, etc.)

:::: FILMS OF 2005 ::::

HERE ARE MY TOP FILMS OF 2005 IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER
-------------------------------------------------------------

Michael Haneke "Hidden" (france)
Wong Kar-Wai "The Hand" (china)
Tsai Ming-Liang "Wayward Cloud" (taiwan)
Hirokazu Koreda "Nobody Knows" (japan)
Ingmar Bergmann "Saraband" (sweden)
Jia Zhangke-Ke "The World" (china)
Hiroshi Teshigahara "Face of Another"/"Man Without a Map"/"Pitfall"
(Re-released adaptations of Kobo Abe from the 60's - first time subtitled in English) (japan)
Paolo Sorrentino "Consequences of Love" (italy)
Aleksander Sokurov "The Sun" (russia)
Miranda July "Me & You & Everyone We Know" (usa) - (actually enjoyed it - surprise!)
David Croenenberg "History of Violence" (usa)

... a coupla films I have been waiting for have yet to show up stateside, so I'm sure that this is a less informed list than it could be. Wong Kar-Wai's "2046" was finally released over here after a year long delay thanks to Sony Pictures Classics, so that was on my list from last year. Otherwise this was another pretty darn stimulating year in Cinema. If Haneke's "Hidden" is coming to a town near you in this next month - Make sure not to miss it!

Oh, what the hell. Here's a few Television Series I watched on DVD and was pleasantly surprised by:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ghost in the Shell "Stand Alone Complex - First Season" (actual, good anime that explores the cyper-sociology and politics of the future civilization in ways that go beyond the surface - with a well formed resolution at the end!)

Carnivale "First Season" (Wow. Depression period drama about a traveling carnival with Masonic/Rosecrutian connections- pretty cool. Really well shot and edited.)

Firefly "Complete First Season - before the dimwits at Fox Cancelled it" (Damn. This was seriously some of the most original, consistent quality and believable Sci-Fi I have seen in a veeerrry long time - with spaceships and lasers even.)

Northwest Film Forum - Hou Hsiao-Hsien & Theo Angelopoulos

"Cafe Lumiere" & "Weeping Meadow" appear to be highlights of this upcoming month at The NWFF

Northwest Film Forum Site

I've seen both of these and think theyre pretty swell in their own disctinct way = looking forward to a second viewing of each!

SUPERSILENT 7 - released 10/05

Norways monolithic improv outfit Supersilent have released their 7th album as an almost 2 hour DVD. Judging from what I know these guys are capable of live, I expect this to effectively kick everyone's collective avant-asses

Link to Supersilent site

Press release from Rune Grammofon:
http://www.runegrammofon.com

SUPERSILENT 7 DVD
"finally we can present this longawaited treat of a concert film. the sold out concert took place in oslo in august last year and was beautifully captured by kim hiorthøy and friends to 16 mm black and white film, and later edited by hiorthøy. the sound was recorded by athletic sound and mixed by helge sten. needless to say, it looks and sounds fantastic. the concert itself was rewarded a six out of six review at the time in norway's major national paper aftenposten.
you get the complete concert, 109 minutes, 6 tracks, in the same order as on the night, there are no overdubs or repairs. and there is no bonus material, not even a menu. this is a conscious decision by the director, artist and label.
we wanted it to work like a cd, with instant access to the concert material and individual tracks. both sound and picture has been coded in the best possible way. it's a dvd-9 (as opposed to the more normal dvd-5), meaning it's a dual layer disc with more space for information and therefore better picture quality. In addition to the standard dolby digital, there is also a dts sound option for those with players equipped for this."