A multi-media exhibition entitled “Moving Images: Preserving Downtown Time-Based Works” will open at New York University’s Fales Library, third floor of the NYU Bobst Library, 70 Washington Square South, on Tuesday, March 26, running through Thursday, July 31. The exhibition will be accompanied by a screening of selected grant-funded preservation work of film and video created by Downtown New York artists on Thursday, April 3, and two panel discussions on Friday, April 4. All events are free and open to the public. Gallery hours for the exhibition are Monday - Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. For further information, call 212.998.2596.
The exhibition comprises moving image works and their supporting archival documentation and features selected works from the Jaime Davidovich Collection, and the papers of Richard Foreman, Richard Hell, Frank Moore, and David Wojnarowicz, which have been preserved with the support of the New York State Council on the Arts, a co-host of this event, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the National Film Preservation Foundation.
The moving image works consist of Super8, 16mm completed works and works-in-progress; performance documentation; early public access TV; and video art. Supporting materials, such as scripts, outlines, sketches, photographs, publications, and other archival documents illustrating the process of creation of the works will be shown along side the film and video works. This exhibition explicates the complex ethical and technical questions that arise when preserving artists’ moving image and time-based works.
On Thursday, April 3, at 7 p.m., preserved film and video works by Hell, Moore, Lenora Champagne, Foreman, Wojnarowicz, Davidovich, and Stuart Sherman will be screened at the NYU Cantor Film Center, 36 8th Street.
On Friday, April 4, at 12 noon, a panel on “Signal Loss: Saving Downtown Video” with Chris Straayer, Davidovich, Sarah Ziebell, and Rebecca Clemans, moderated by Ann Butler, will take place at the Cantor Film Center. At 2 p.m. panelists Peggy Ahwesh, Bill Brand, Andrew Lampert, and Nick Zedd, with moderator Brent Phillips, will discuss “Not Your Home Movies: Downtown Film.”