Cinema Parenthèse #44 and Imal PresentVicky Smith - Experimental Animation Films

Cinema Parenthèse and iMAL present the British experimental animation artist Vicky Smith (in the presence of the artist). Her "most abstract works to date, the body feels very present, as it does so often in her filmmaking. Her techniques for direct mark-making on the film’s surface are astonishing. Tiny white marks fiercely scratched into the black of the raw film-stock, pinpricks, tears and scratches becoming abrasions and bruises suggest physical vulnerability. Things dribbled onto the filmstrip, things scratched into it – the filmstrip, too, is paramount in her films.” – David Curtis

“Smith uses bodily fluids such as spit and tears as the material basis for the film’s imagery, interspersed with animated scratches on the surface of the celluloid. Smith invites an almost clinical engagement with these internal fluids. Enlarged on the screen, they resemble scientific microscopic images that bring us into an uncanny physical proximity with the artist’s body. The choice of material support – clear leader rather than negative stock – bestows on the film an ethereal quality that elicits both fascination and discomfort.” - Kim Knowles

Vicky Smith was part of the London Film Makers Co-op, has a PhD in experimental film, is co-founder of artist collective Bristol Experimental Expanded Film (BEEF) in Bristol and lectures at the University for the Creative Arts, Farnham.

Program

Introduction by Vicky Smith

- The Pecking Order1989 ,  16mm ,  color ,  sound ,  5'00An innovative animation touching on a series of interlinked concerns around issues of intensive farming, animal slaughter, famine, the Food Mountains of the West and devastation of the rain forests. The reality of violence is represented by live action black and white shots of two knives being sharpened for the slaughter. Different sound effects relate to the collage of diverse animated images chaotically linked together to signify global distress.

- My Moon, Her World1995 ,  16mm ,  color ,  sound ,  7'00Animation is combined with live action which has been treated – pixillated, refilmed, slow motion – so as to emphasise its connection with the grotesque animated segments. Abstract and figurative are juxtaposed, as are black-and-white line with broad panes of colours, and spontaneously-generated images with pre-planned ideas. The loose theme is that of gravity becoming decentred – merging and spilling out, the dissolution of inner and outer. The organising principle behind the diverse techniques is to take the viewer through this journey from the minute to the infinite.

- Fixation2002 ,  16mm ,  color ,  sound ,  8'00Its impossible to look directly at the monster so a shield is used to study its reflection. Through animated solar stains, fixation explores family history, witches and the alchemy in spells, chemistry, psychological and photographic fixations. The solar stain is a collage of objects whose breath of light is impressed upon photo paper which has been exposed to UV then fixed. The discolouration of the paper becomes the image, brown monochrome shadows.

- Stacking2007 ,  16mm ,  color ,  sound ,  7'00Liquid animation describing an unstable environment…

- Noisy Licking, Dribbling And Spitting2014 ,  16mm ,  color ,  sound ,  4'00The film is made with the mouth alone. Licking, dribbling and spitting directly onto film generates image and audio alike. I stained my tongue and then pressed it onto the filmstrip as though it were a stamping pad. I left a 40-frame gap between first tongue and the next print and then reduced each new impression by 1 frame. The licking section intersects with dribbling - where two methods of printing and painting overlap and are brought together through the physical.

- Primal2016 ,  16mm ,  color/b&w ,  sound ,  10'00I had wanted to make a film by marking directly onto celluloid, yet the hard edge lines like those made by Lye did not capture the sense of fragility and uncertainty that was important to me. Instead, I softened the emulsion of old unprocessed fogged negative and rubbed it away until it yielded soft stain-like shapes and textures. Similarly the sounds by Shirley Pegna are made by rubbing materials against the mic.

- Small Things Moving In Unison2018 ,  16mm ,  color/b&w ,  sound ,  5'00Thousands of tiny perforations are made directly into 16mm black leader. These repetitive physical actions generate marks that describe relational fields.

- Not(a)Part2019 ,  16mm ,  color/b&w ,  sound ,  6'00Not (a) part was conceived in relation to both the rapid decline of flying insects and the high recurrence of animation, handmade or contact film that works with the subject and/or material of flying insects. Numerous dead bees found on walks were positioned directly onto negative film and contact printed. Occupying approximately 24 frames they run at a rate of 1 bee per second. The length of the film is determined by how many specimens are found over a specified period of time.

- Re:Exposure2021 ,  16mm ,  tinted b&w ,  sound ,  7'30The film is a reflection on exposure, and on change, of skin to sun and of film to light, and the environmental, social and hereditary factors that impact the aging process. My mother and I share spoken memories about summer and change, in social customs, and to the climate. The DIY analogue film processing method gives this material a burnt brown look, while the inclusion of ‘mistakes’, such as fogged and scratched sections, emphasize the sense of exposure and damage to skin and to film material’.

- Screen Tests2021 ,  16mm ,  b&w ,  silent ,  3'00The poor sensitivity to light in early photography meant that moving subjects were required to remain as still as possible for the prolonged exposure times. Warhol appears to reference this dynamic in his 1960s Screen Tests, yet in this series the condition of stillness is placed in tension with the medium of the moving image. The vast quantity of over 500 screen tests is also a seeming nod to the 19th c fashion for collectibles. During the 1850s the socially mobile posed for long photographic exposures and then exchanged these selfie calling cards with other members of the bourgeoisie.

- Self Portrait 1-32023 ,  16mm ,  b&w ,  silent ,  5'00

Self Portrait 1: SheddingShedding continues my recent practice of working with 16mm analogue film in ways that bring it closer to the medium of painting and as a way to explore the psyche and the experience of ageing. As layers of the image fall away it becomes apparent that, though the figure had initially appeared to be overly saturated with light, in fact the exposure is correct: the brightness is caused by the multiple superimpositions.  

Self Portrait 2: Spinning A comparison between animation and continuous motion, Spinning uses various filming speeds in relation to the performing body, and with reference to a memory of Wonder Woman. One continuous physical rotation at the rate of 8fps motion equals one second of time and yields 8 separate film frames. Stop motion is then applied, such that the figure does not spin but rather is repositioned across 8, then 4, and finally 2 poses. Upon projection, the film reconstitutes the impression of a continuous action, while the multiple simultaneous perspectives evoke Cubism.   

Self Portrait 3: DeliquesceHolding my breath and entangled in seaweed and bubbles, my face is distorted by the fluid medium of the sea

Q&AVicky Smith

Cinema Parenthèse is a collective of writers, programmers and filmmakers that organizes experi-mental film screenings and dialogues in Brussels. Current members are Wendy Evan, Els van Riel, Nicky Hamlyn, Daniel A. Swarthnas and Arindam Sen.