Laser Light: The Films of Sabine Gruffat

Wednesday June 13, 08:30PM - FREE EVENT

PIX FILM Gallery

Co-Presented with

THE LIAISON OF INDEPENDET FILMMAKERS OF TORONTO

as part of the STUDIO IMMERSION PROGRAM

Supported by The PETMAN FOUNDATION

Black Oval White

2009

RT: 3 minutes

Mini DV/DVCAM

A video recording of a computer-generated abstract animation that is keyed, wiped and matted by electronic oscillators. The sound of the electronic oscillators is delayed and pitched to produce modulations.

A Return to The Return to Reason

2014

RT: 3 minutes

Laser etched BW 35mm film leader transferred to Digital file.

A scratch film for the 21st Century where 35mm black leader is meticulously etched frame by frame using a digital laser cutter (a machine designed for precision carpentry). A Return to The Return to Reason is a conceptual and materialist tribute to Man Ray's 1923 film Le Retour à La Raison (A Return to Reason), the first film to use the 'Rayograph' technique in which Man Ray exposed found objects onto film negative.

Brave New World

2015

RT: 7 minutes

35mm Film transferred to HD

In this video, 35mm archival silent documentary film footage shot by Henry Ford’s own filmmakers is reworked and given a soundtrack revealing the colonial lens through which the filmmakers apprehended unfamiliar nature. Through editing and processing the film confronts the violent history of Fordism while questioning the limits of mediated vision.

Headlines

2007

RT: 9 minutes

Hand-processed 16mm Tri-X reversal transferred to Digital file.

These three films were made from The New York Times newspaper articles. The semi - automated animation process resulted in sentence recombinations that sometimes made sense while randomly emphasizing certain words and images.

Framelines

2017

RT: 11 minutes

35mm film

An abstract scratch film made by laser etching abstract patterns on the film emulsion of negative and positive 35mm film. The strips of film were then re-photographed on top of each other as photograms then contact printed. The soundtrack filters and layers the noise made by the laser etched optical track.

Amarillo Ramp*

*co-directed with Bill Brown

2017

RT: 24 minutes

16mm film transferred to Digital file.

Perhaps best known for his Spiral Jetty, sculptor Robert Smithson's interest in landscape and land use was prophetic. In 1973, Texas oil millionaire Stanley Marsh 3 commissioned Smithson to create an earthwork on Marsh's cattle ranch north of Amarillo. Called 'Amarillo Ramp,' it was to be Smithson's final art project: he was killed in a plane crash while flying over the site on an aerial survey. Responding to Smithson's sculptural practice, as well as his interest in science fiction, this experimental film is a document, a memorial, and a meditation on Amarillo Ramp as an observatory of time and space.

TRT: 57 minutes

Sabine Gruffat is a French-American artist who works with experimental video and animation, media-

enhanced performance, participatory public art, and immersive installation. In this work, machines,

interfaces, and systems constitute the language by which she codes the world. The creation of new ideas means inventing new tools, crossing analog and digital signals, or repurposing old machines to patch into new ones. By actively disrupting both current and outmoded technology, Gruffat questions standardized ways of understanding the world around us. More detailed information at http://www.dreamingupfilms.com

Performance/Workshop