Film Love brings Anthony McCall to Atlanta’s Plaza Theatre

Anthony McCall Line Describing a Cone during the twenty-fourth minute Installation view at the Whitney Museum of American Art exhibition Into the Light the Projected Image in American Art - Photograph by Hank Graber Courtesy Sean Kelly Gallery New York Galerie Thomas Zander Cologne Galerie Martine Aboucaya Paris A few films demand a room Not just a screen or a projector but fog machines open space and an audience willing to stand up move around and look back toward the light Anthony McCall s Line Describing a Cone is one of those films Made in it s a -minute analysis in projected light that turns a cinema into a sculptural experience You can t stream it You can t approximate it at home You have to be there On Dec Film Love brings Line Describing a Cone to the Plaza Theatre alongside works by Gordon Matta-Clark and Jamie Nares We talked to Andy Ditzler the founder and curator of Film Love about what happens when you turn a neighborhood theater into an installation space and why certain cinematic experiences refuse to be archived Why does Line Describing a Cone keep pulling you back I rarely repeat a film plan once I ve shown it but Line Describing a Cone is something I just have to show every so often I love it so much the elegance of it the visual beauty the complexity-through-simplicity that constantly signals a great work I love how it s high art the projected light beam through fog is an interactive form of sculpture but has no high-art baggage It s unashamedly spectacular in its Zen kind of way It s a definitive announcement on the nature of projected light the passage of time and the collective viewing experience that cinema can still offer us and it s as fundamental to cinema as Hitchcock or anyone else I could name That s why it s central but also why it s fun You re pairing it with films by Gordon Matta-Clark and Jamie Nares How do these three works talk to each other All three artists do share the New York of the s and it s consistently great to see Matta-Clark s Conical Intersect knowing he cut that conical hole through that Paris building after seeing Line Describing a Cone Ultimately though as with any film effort I put together it s about creating an evening at the cinema with an emotional trajectory that can also spark ideas I know these three films together will do that really well because however experimental they are these three artists know exactly what they re doing You could call Line Describing a Cone an installation in the museum sense Whenever it s shown there s an aspect of that and of unit it is often shown in museum exhibitions But it was first shown in the context of film screenings in art spaces not cinemas exactly but not museums either FILM LOVE founder and curator andy ditzlef What should people expect when they walk into the Plaza I ll give a little introduction to the films as usual to set a welcoming context for viewing and then off we go The events depicted in the Nares and Matta-Clark films are quite adventurous and they re not really available to see anywhere else in the quality they deserve so we get to see them once and maybe not again for a while I m sure though that the big screen at the Plaza will make up somewhat for the ephemerality when you see a movie on a large screen the feeling of it sticks around longer in the memory Line Describing a Cone requires a space free of fixed seating so that viewers can interact with the projection beam and view the film from a number of different vantage points including looking back toward the projector So we re projecting it in front of the front row parallel to the big screen where people can circulate So people should expect not to be in their seats for that film All three works change how people experience physical space What was the thinking behind treating the Plaza as an installation space It goes back to the idea of the connections between the films and between the audience and the films We ll start by seeing an artist Jamie Nares in the street manipulating the giant pendulum the artist in the middle of the work so to speak Then we ll see Matta-Clark cutting the giant cone through the building Crucially a sequence near the end when the work is complete and a sparse people are allowed inside so those viewers are in the middle of the artwork which is a giant hole through several stories so it s disorienting to even watch much less imagine yourself inside And then with Line Describing a Cone the audience at the Plaza will be inside the work as viewers are encouraged to interact with the cone of light created by the haze machine and the projection beam And the film looks great from the screen s vantage point looking back toward the projector So we ll go from seeing the artist in the middle of the work to seeing viewers in the middle of a work to being in the middle of the work You could call Line Describing a Cone an installation in the museum sense Whenever it s shown there s an aspect of that and of program it is often shown in museum exhibitions But it was first shown in the context of film screenings in art spaces not cinemas exactly but not museums either It was a single screening where the audience watched it straight through rather than the looping gallery installation it s most of often seen as now I badly wished to show it inside the Plaza partly to get the work further away from installation and closer to cinema And in turn to somehow modify the Plaza too though just how will only become apparent at the screening For people unfamiliar with experimental film or artists cinema where should they start when considering this work That s a great question Line Describing a Cone calmly defies and subverts all the boundaries we like to set up between high art and movies and cinemas and museums and sculpture and performance and sociality and contemplative experience and more I d say approach this film from wherever you re at in terms of your artistic or cinematic interests guaranteed it will find you there Film Love presents Classics of the Avant-Garde part two at p m Dec at the Plaza Theatre Read More Film Love brings hard-to-see movies to a big screen Film Love shows love for iconic underground filmmaker George Kuchar on Friday The post Film Love brings Anthony McCall to Atlanta s Plaza Theatre appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta