{"id":12747,"date":"2014-02-06T00:03:52","date_gmt":"2014-02-06T05:03:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.microscopegallery.com\/?page_id=12747"},"modified":"2014-02-06T13:47:32","modified_gmt":"2014-02-06T18:47:32","slug":"12747-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.microscopegallery.com\/archive\/?page_id=12747","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Monday February 10, 7pm<\/strong><\/span>
\nTracking Back<\/strong><\/span>
\nFilms & Videos by Anita Thacher<\/span>
\nadmission $6 – artist in person<\/em><\/span><\/h1>\n

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\nStill from “Loose Corner” (Anita Thacher, 1986)\u00a0\u00a9 courtesy of the artist<\/span>
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\nMicroscope is extremely pleased to present a mini-retrospective of films and videos by Anita Thacher. The artist was studying at the New York Studio School in the mid-60s when a desire to show more than one perspective on a collage work led her try to achieve what she was envisioning through the medium of film. With encouragement and a borrowed camera from Ken Jacobs and the Millennium Film School, Thacher made \u201cPermanent Wave\u201d – a piece combining original 16mm footage with her father\u2019s home movies as well as 1940s \u201cBlue Movies\u201d she found amongst his collection. The film went on to be included in MoMA’s permanent collection along with many of her subsequent films. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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In addition to \u201cPermanent Wave\u201d, the evening\u2019s program features seven seminal works including \u201cBack Track\u201d, a collaboration with Dennis Oppenheim that premiered at the MoMA\u2019s 1969 \u201cInformation Show\u201d; \u201cLoose Corner\u201d, which along with Jim Jarmusch\u2019s \u201cDown By Law\u201d opened the 1986 New York Film Festival; and \u201cHomage to Magritte\u201d, one of her most screened works and recognized in The Whitney\u2019s \u201cThe Color of Ritual, The Color of Thought: Women Avant-Garde Filmmakers in America 1930-2000\u201d. The evening will conclude with sneak peaks of two of Thacher\u2019s latest video works.<\/span><\/p>\n

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“In my short films I have drawn with the linear paths of the character\u2019s actions. The actions can construct a Kandinsky-like geometry within the film frame. Shapes, such as circles, rectangles, squares, etc. are \u201cdrawn\u201d on the frame by actions and build an underlying linear structure, through time, over the course of the film.” – AT<\/span><\/p>\n

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The screening is taking place in connection with Anita Thacher\u2019s current exhibition DETOURS<\/span><\/a>, on view at the gallery through Monday February 24th<\/sup>.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\nAnita Thacher is a New York-based artist working in multiple mediums including painting, film, video, public art, light, architectural and sculptural installation. Her most recent exhibition was the site-specific light installation \u201cLeeway\u201d at Mixed Greens,\u00a0New York in 2011\/2012. She has previously exhibited at institutions including The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, MoMA P.S.1, The Whitney Museum of American Art, Jeu de Paume, Paris among many others. Thacher\u2019s films screen regularly in the US and internationally and are in the public collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Berlin Arsenal, and the French Film Archives among others.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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PROGRAM<\/strong><\/span>
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\nPermanent Wave<\/strong><\/span>
\n16mm film, color, sound, 1968, 3 minutes<\/em><\/span>
\n\u201cI was excited by the potential of the film medium \u2026 I dug into my father’s 16mm film collection, (he had been an amateur filmmaker).\u00a0 I discovered among his home movies a few so-called, blue films from the 40’s.\u00a0I used his silent 16mm projector to project the films\u2026 The projector did not always hold the sprockets well and the film skipped along at times.\u00a0I found the consequent motion a kind of commentary on the material and decided to incorporate the motion in my film.\u00a0Combined with some of my father’s tourist shots, my silhouetted hands and other images, and manipulated with a variety of shaped masks in front of the lens- (a special feature adaptation of the Kodak Cine-Special camera) I made my first film- a film-collage titled, Permanent<\/em> <\/em>Wave<\/em>.\u201d \u00a0– AT<\/span><\/p>\n

Back Track<\/strong><\/span>
\n16mm film, b&w, sound, 1969, 7 minutes<\/em><\/span>
\nA collaboration with Dennis Oppenheim, shot at Jones Beach.<\/span><\/p>\n

Homage to Magritte<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>
\n16mm film, color, sound, 1975, 10 minutes<\/em><\/span>
\n\u201cThis film begins with the sense of juxtaposition and the absurd that are the basis of Rene Magritte\u2019s paintings, and then successfully makes its own contribution to the Surrealist tradition through the careful and evocative manipulation of the filmed image…\u201d – MoMA film catalogue<\/span><\/p>\n

Sea Travels<\/strong><\/span>
\n16mm film, color, sound, 1978, 11 minutes<\/em><\/span>
\nSea Travels explores the theme of childhood memories, dreams, fantasies and unique language.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Breakfast Table<\/strong><\/span>
\nvideo, color, sound, 1979, 14 minutes<\/em><\/span>
\nThe Breakfast Table is a \u201clive-action, video cartoon–a parody of 1940\u2019s cartoons of domesticity.\u00a0 In the film the all-too dutiful wife realizes her fantasies through Walter Mitty-like transformations.\u00a0 She becomes, among other characters, a slinky vamp, a baseball player and a revolutionary.<\/span>
\n\u201cThe Breakfast Table is most ingenious.\u00a0 The sound track is very special, setting up a rhythm that underscores a 1940\u2019s vignette…Thacher uses painterly effects on the set, making this at times, a two-dimensional world.\u00a0 The transitions are masterful.\u201d\u00a0– Helen Kohen, Miami Herald<\/span><\/p>\n

Loose Corner<\/strong><\/span>
\n16mm film, color, sound, 1986, 10 minutes<\/em><\/span>
\nLike the challenges to our assumptions posed by Alice in Wonderland<\/em>, issues of scale, materiality and relationships are raised within a child’s\u00a0 “game-like” structure in this film.<\/span><\/p>\n

To The Top<\/strong><\/span>
\n16mm film, color, sound, 1991, 10 minutes<\/em><\/span>
\n\u201cTo The Top<\/em> pays homage to films\u2019 fundamental magic; its power to recreate motion through consecutive still images. Its subject, on one level, the illustration of top tricks, is also a demonstration of the magic of motion in another realm, film itself. To The Top<\/em>\u00a0 glories in these and other identities. Collaged images and single frame\/animation are married to passionate music.\u201d – AT<\/span><\/p>\n

Plus sneak previews of new video works!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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\nStills from:<\/span>
\n “The Breakfast Table” (Anita Thacher, 1979) (left)<\/span>
\n“To The Top” (Anita Thacher, 1991) (right)<\/span>
\n \u00a9 courtesy of the artist<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Monday February 10, 7pm Tracking Back Films & Videos by Anita Thacher admission $6 – artist in person Still from “Loose Corner” (Anita Thacher, 1986)\u00a0\u00a9 courtesy of the artist Microscope is extremely pleased to present a mini-retrospective of films and videos by Anita Thacher. The artist was studying at the New York Studio School in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_mc_calendar":[],"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-12747","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microscopegallery.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microscopegallery.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microscopegallery.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microscopegallery.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microscopegallery.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12747"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.microscopegallery.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12747\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12750,"href":"https:\/\/www.microscopegallery.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12747\/revisions\/12750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microscopegallery.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}