Film Screening
December 12, 2021, 6:15pm
Anthology Film Archives
Followed by a conversation between Clifford Allen and Ben Young.
Artists Space
New York Eye & Ear Control:
Michael Snow and the New York Art Quartet
“Conceived, shot and edited by myself in 1964. I selected a group of musicians: Albert Ayler, Don Cherry, John Tchicai, Roswell Rudd, Gary Peacock, Sonny Murray. It is one of the greatest ‘jazz’ groups ever. The music used on the soundtrack and other takes from the recording sessions have recently (1966) been issued on record (ESP-DISK 1016). Paul Haines wrote the prologue which appears in the film. Walking Woman Works (1960-67). The Eternal. The Spectrum. The Glissando. The Alarm Clock. Black and White. Thirty-four Minutes. Forty Dollars.” – Michael Snow
Coinciding with their retrospective on Canadian experimental filmmaker Michael Snow and Artists Space's current exhibition Milford Graves: Fundamental Frequency, Anthology co-presents a screening of Snow's 1964 masterpiece New York Eye and Ear Control. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion exploring Snow’s relationship to Milford Graves and his ties to the 1960s Free Jazz movement, which is further elucidated in the exhibition through a selection of rare archival documentation. Fundamental Frequency is on view at 11 Cortlandt Alley through January 8th, 2022.
New York Eye & Ear Control, 1964. 34 min, 16mm.
Michael Snow’s extensive and multidisciplinary oeuvre includes painting, sculpture, video, film, sound, photography, holography, drawing, writing, and music. His work explores the nature of perception, consciousness, language, and temporality. Snow is a world renowned experimental filmmakers, most known for having inspired the Structural Film movement with his groundbreaking film Wavelength (1967). Snow has received several prestigious awards including the Gershon Iskowitz Prize (2011), the Guggenheim Fellowship (1972), the Order of Canada (1982), and the Chevalier de l'ordre des arts et des lettres, France (1995, 2011). He was born in 1928 in Toronto, where he lives and works today. He has received honorary degrees from the University of Toronto (1999), the University of Victoria (1997), the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (1990), and Brock University (1975).
Clifford Allen was born in 1977 (Capricorn sun, Leo moon, Scorpio rising) in Topeka, Kansas and currently resides in the Hudson Valley. A historian, record collector, and critic of improvised music, Allen is also the Director of Archives for the Byrd Hoffman Watermill Foundation, which administers the archives of theater director and visual artist Robert Wilson and the Watermill Center, an artist residency center Wilson founded in 1992.
Ben Young is a music researcher and radio host. Twenty years on the air at Columbia University's WKCR have included continuing in-depth study of the avant-garde jazz of the 1960s, focusing on Albert Ayler, Don Cherry, Bill Dixon, Cecil Taylor, and their circles. Dixonia, his bio-discography of Dixon, was published in 1998 and a forthcoming work proposes to be the definitive treatment of Cecil Taylor's life and career. In addition to widespread work in jazz reissues, Young has produced cornerstone projects on the music of Ayler, Jimmy Lyons, and, later this year, the New York Art Quartet. Since 2010, he has lectured on music for Jazz at Lincoln Center's Swing University.
Lead Support for Milford Graves: Fundamental Frequency is provided by the Robert D. Bielecki Foundation. Core Support is provided by Corbett vs. Dempsey, Martin & Rebecca Eisenberg, and Joe & Nancy Walker.
Program support for Artists Space is provided by The Friends of Artists Space, Lambent Foundation Fund of Tides Foundation, The Cowles Charitable Trust, The Cy Twombly Foundation, The David Teiger Foundation, The Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, The New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, Imperfect Family Foundation, Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, The Stavros Niarchos Foundation, The Willem de Kooning Foundation, The Danielson Foundation, The Fox Aarons Foundation, Herman Goldman Foundation, The Destina Foundation, The Luce Foundation, May and Samuel Rudin Family Foundation, The Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, VIA Art Fund, Arison Arts Foundation, The Chicago Community Fund, The David Rockefeller Fund, The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Foundation, The Jill and Peter Kraus Foundation, The Richard Pousette-Dart Foundation.