| Bill Morrison is an award-winning filmmaker
and one of the foremost film artists
working today. His films are uniquely described as documentary, fiction and decayed found footage – working with the physicality of film, real and imagined.
We are delighted to present this retrospective and warmly welcome him to Cork to present his work. |
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“The frame pauses briefly before the projector’s lamp, and then moves on. Our lives are accumulation of ephemeral images and moments that our consciousness
constructs into a reality. No sooner have we grasped the present, it is relegated
to the past, where it only exists in the subjective history of each individual.
The images can be thought of as desires or memories: actions that take place in the mind. The filmstock can be thought of as their body, that which enables these events to be seen.
Like our own bodies this celluloid is a fragile and ephemeral medium that can deteriorate in countless ways. The nitro-cellulose base gradually returns to the elements that comprise it: cotton, nitric acid, and camphor. The images deform and coalesce throughout the length of the film, appearing to melt, burn, drip or tear away from the base. This is a natural phenomenon. I chose only those images where this deterioration has happened over time, while stored in archives. Like the film, our bodies will eventually be reduced to what essentially forms us. What they contain is who we are: our thoughts, dreams, and memories. These too will be reprised as something new, and hopefully, more lasting”.
Filmmaker Bill Morrison has eight titles in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. His films have been screened at cinematheques, museums and concert halls worldwide, including BAM, Carnegie Hall, the Hirshhorn Museum, Lincoln Center, MoMA, the National Gallery of Art, the Tate Modern, and Royal Festival Hall. |
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| They have accompanied live performances by The American Composers Orchestra, The Bang On A Can All-Stars, The Brooklyn Philharmonic, Bill Frisell, The London Sinfonietta, and Wilco. Bill has received an Alpert Award, a Guggenheim fellowship, and an award from the Foundation for Contemporary Art, as well as production grants from Creative Capital, NYSCA, NYFA, and the NEA. |
His projected set work with the acclaimed performance ensemble Ridge Theater has been recognized with two Bessie awards for excellence in theatrical design, and an Obie Award for collaborative design. “Decasia”, his feature length collaboration with composer Michael Gordon, has been performed live with a 55-piece orchestra surrounding audiences in Basel in 2001, at St. Ann’s Warehouse, Brooklyn, in 2004, and in Los Angeles’ Walt Disney Concert Hall in 2006. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and on the Sundance Channel in 2002, and was named one of the ten best films of 2003 by the Village Voice.
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