LUX is pleased to announce Afterimages: a series of monograph DVD releases specifically for college and library purchase.
Afterimages is a continually-expanding collection of important film and video works by artists, newly remastered and made available on DVD for the first time. The aim is to make important historical works by artists available to students, teachers and researchers interested in film and the visual arts.
Each DVD will focus on a particular artist and will feature several key works. Many of the artists are also featured in the LUX Online website, which provides critical writing about their work, as well as stills, streaming video clips and other contextual resources.
Please note: Afterimages DVDs are currently only available to colleges and libraries for class room use, and are not for individual purchase.
- Afterimages 1: Malcolm Le Grice Volume 1
- Afterimages 2: Peter Gidal Volume 1
- Afterimages 3: Lis Rhodes volume 1
- Afterimages 4: Vivienne Dick
- Ordering information
- Other LUX resources for universities and libraries
 |
| Afterimages: Malcom Le Grice Volume 1 |
Afterimages 1: Malcolm Le Grice Volume 1
Malcolm Le Grice is one of the central figures in British experimental film and video. He has been making work since the mid-1960s which has continued to be exhibited internationally, including recent screenings at both Tate Modern and Tate Britain. He is currently a professor at the University of the Arts London, and is the author of several books including Experimental Cinema in the Digital Age (2001). You can read more about Malcolm Le Grice on LUX Online.
This DVD includes five of his most important early works: Little Dog For Roger (1967, 12 mins), Berlin Horse (1970, 9 mins), Threshold (1972, 17 mins), Whitchurch Down (Duration) (1972, 10 mins) and After Lumiere - L'Arroseur Arrose (1974, 12 mins).
Little Dog For Roger, 1967, 12 min, b/w, sd
‘Little Dog For Roger is made from some fragments of 9.5 home movie that
my father shot of my mother - myself, and a dog we had. This vaguely nostalgic
material has provided an opportunity for me to play with medium of celluloid
and various kinds of printing and processing devices. The qualities of film
the sprockets the individual frames the deterioration of records like memories,
all play an important part in the meaning of this film.’ MLG
Berlin Horse, 1970, 9 min, col, sd
Sound by Brian Eno.
‘This film is largely filmed with an exploration of the film medium in
certain aspects. It is also concerned with making certain conceptions about
time in a more illusory way than I have been inclined to explore in many other
of my films. It attempts to deal with some of the paradoxes of the relationships
of the "real" time which exists when the film was being shot, with
the "real" time which exists when the film is being screened, and
how this can be modulated by technical manipulation of the images and sequences.
The film is in two parts joined by a central superimposition of the material
from both parts. The first part is made from a small section of film shot by
me in 8mm colour, and later refilmed in various ways from the screen in 16mm
b/w. The b/w material was then printed in a negative positive superimposition
through colour filters creating a continually changing 'solarization' image,
which works in its own time abstractly from the image. The second part is made
by treating very early b/w newsreel of a similar subject in the same way. As
a two screen film the second screen has a b/w version of the whole film.’ MLG
Threshold, 1972, 17 min, col, sd
"Threshold, made five years later, aptly offers points of comparison with
Little Dog For Roger. Le Grice no longer simply uses the printer as a reflexive
mechanism, but utilises the possibilities of colour-shift and permutation of
imagery as the film progresses from simplicity to complexity. The initial use
of pure red and green filters gives way to a broad variety of colours and the
introduction of strips of coloured/celluloid which are drawn through the printer
begins to build an image which becomes graphically and spatially complex -
if still abstract - and which evokes the paintings of, say, Clifford Still
or Morris Louis. With the film's culmination in representational, photographic
imagery, one would anticipate a culminating 'richness' of image; yet the insistent
evidence of splice bars and the loop and repetition of the short piece of found
footage and the conflicting superimposition of filtered loops all reiterate
(as in Little Dog) the work which is necessary to decipher that cinematic image." -
Deke Dusinberre.
Whitchurch Down (Duration), 1972, colour, 10 min, col, sd
‘This film is the beginning of an examination of the perceptual and conceptual
structures which can be dealt with using pure colour sequences in loop forms
with pictorial material. In this case the pictorial material is confined to
three landscape locations, and the structure is not mathematically rigorous.’ MLG
After Lumiere - l'arroseur arrosé, 1974, 12 min, col, sd
‘Though shot in 1974 before After Manet, its conception post-dated all
the preparatory work for that film. It handles in a single screen way a similar
area of problematic relying more evidently on speculation by the audience of
the 'out of shot' state of affairs, and on the expected development of the
work. Like the Manet film, it is based loosely on another work, in this case
adding a character who does not feature in the Lumiere film. Both works are
concerned with cinematic procedures and with the audience procedure in structuring
the material.’ MLG
 |
| Afterimages: Peter Gidal Volume 1 |
Afterimages 2: Peter Gidal Volume 1
Peter Gidal's films have been an influence on several generations of artists. An important theorist and writer as well as a filmmaker since the late 1960s, Gidal was a pioneer of 'structural-materialist' film and his work has been shown around the world, including retrospectives at the ICA in London and the Centre Pompidou, Paris. You can read more about Peter Gidal on LUX Online.
This DVD includes three seminal early films: Key (1968, 10 mins), Clouds (1969, 10 mins) and Room Film 1973 (1973, 55 mins).
Key, 1968, 10 min, sound, colour
A slow zoom out and defocus of…
'An enclosed and progressive disembowelment of durational progression.' - Birgit
Hein, Film Im Underground, 1971
Clouds, 1969, 10 min, silent, b&w
Frantic frame edge defining nothingness.
‘The anti-illusionist project engaged by Clouds is that of dialectic
materialism. There is virtually nothing on screen, in the sense of in screen.
Obsessive repetition as materialist practice not psychoanalytical indulgence.’ -
PG (Nov 1975)
‘Gidal's film Clouds establishes an awareness of position, a confrontation,
and it takes you back to you from the far reaches of eternal space the confrontation
as with you.’ - Steve Dwoskin, Independent Cinema (1970)
Room Film 1973, 1973, 55 min, silent, colour
‘The anti-illusionist project & the materialist dialectic are no
more mechanistic goals than for example Marxist poltical theory and practice.
This film is a consequent continuation and contraction of my film work, research
which began with Room (1967). The film is not a translation of anything, it
is not a representation of anything, not even of consciousness.’ - PG
‘I liked your Room Film very much. It is very good... I felt as if my
father had made it, as if it was made by a blind man. I liked the tentativeness...
sometimes the repeating shots would be clear, other times one couldn't tell
if it was continuous. One had to work at it. I think it is a really beautiful
film. I liked the splices! I feel that searching tentative quality a lot, that
quality of trying to see.’ - Michael Snow (Sept 1973)
‘I was particularly impressed with Gidal's film, which from what I've
seen may be his best to date. Very subtly and very plastically it deals with
light. The film is uncompromisingly rigid in its minimality of action. A very
beautifully realised piece of work... it is definitely contemporary in feeling
and substance. It is one of the best films to come out of the London School.’ -
Jonas Mekas, Village Voice (1973)
‘...there is no describable content, but one watches with fascination
the representation of the objective world through the agency of light and its
absence. An important enlargement of the historical conception of modernism,
Gidal also poses the problem of the dialectic of representation, through representation
(Rembrandt, Giacometti, etc).’ - Malcolm Le Grice, Studio International
(1973)
 |
| Afterimages 3: Lis Rhodes volume 1 |
Afterimages 3: Lis Rhodes volume 1
Lis Rhodes has been at the forefront of British experimental filmmaking since the early 1970s. She studied at the North East London Polytechnic and the Royal College of Art. A strong formal aesthetic has been developed in her films, reflecting her involvement with the debates and practice which emerged from the London Filmmakers' Co-operative, where she was Cinema Curator 1975-6. Early 'expanded' works such as Light Music (1975) fused performance and multi-screen projection with an exploration of the visual qualities of sound. Her analysis of broader political and social questions can be traced to her later films, which combine formal rigour with a passionate critique of issues from nuclear power to domestic violence. As an active campaigner for women's rights, Rhodes was a founder member of Circles, the first women's artist film and video (1979) and was an Arts Advisor to the Greater London Council between 1982 and 1985. She lives and works in London and teaches at Slade School of Fine Art, University College, London.
Contents
Light Reading, 1978, 20 min
The bloodstained bed suggest a crime..No answers are given, after the torrrent of words at the beginning of the film, all the film offers are closed images and more questions..Is it even blood on the bed, what fracture is there between seeing and certainty? If there has been a crime, 'she' might still be victim..How can a crime of such complexity and continuity be 'solved'? The voice searches for clues, sifting through them, reading and re-reading until the words and letters loom up nightmarishly, no longer hung on the structure of language. Felicity Sparrow, Her Image Fades as her Voice Rises, Arts Council of Breat Britain 1983
Pictures on Pink Paper, 1982, 35 min
In Lis Rhodes' closely textured work, pictures and meanings are experimented with, brought richly together or pared down to abstraction in order to challenge and re-create. She shows us how the apparent inevitability of 'the natural' and immutability of 'the normal' are held neatly in place by those to whom such an order is of advantage. Pictures on Pink Paper is - women talking, thinking aloud and questioning this order; a critique of past experiences and ways of thinking, interwoven with the images and sounds from places remembered. There are numerous threads and layers, of possibilities and contradictions, as the film moves between what is heard and what might be spoken; was known and is now seen. Circles Distribution Catalogue 1987
Cold Draft, 1988, 28 min
Shows the surveillance of a woman by overseers who have judged her to be mad. What is most provocative about this film is that it proposes multiple credible points of view even as the woman is being certified insane by the Censors. We voyage into the skull of a woman and peer out to a monumentally static cold waste with planetary slow motion. It is the bunker-eye view. Sandra Lahire, Undercut, Autumn 1990.
Light Reading and Pictures on Pink Paper are currently featured in the exhibition Wack! Art and the Feminist Revolution at MOCA, LA http://www.moca.org/wack/
Read more about Lis Rhodes on Luxonline
 |
| Afterimages 4: Vivienne Dick |
Born in Donegal, Ireland, Vivienne Dick moved to New York in 1975. There she became part of a group of filmmakers affiliated to the music and aesthetics known as 'No Wave'. Shot mainly on Super-8, Dick's films from this period feature many people and musicians from the No Wave movement in New York, such as Lydia Lunch, Pat Place, James Chance and Ikue Mori. Invoking the spirit of '60s underground filmmakers, her work betrays an interest in individual transgression, urban street life, kitsch and pop culture. Multilayered and open-ended, the work is framed from a female perspective, with an overriding concern for social conditioning and sexual politics.
Contents
Guerillére Talks, 1978, 24 min
Dick's first film, consists of eight unedited rolls of super-8 sound footage. A chorus of red and white Kodak leader separates the individual rolls, each of which is a sort of screen test for Dick's female subjects (most of whom are or were associated with the punk music scene)...Guerillere Talks can be seen as the extension of Warholian pragmatism to super-8 talkies. However, by juxtaposing various examples of female self-definition against the backdrop of a decaying social order, the film is also the rehearsal and paradigm for Dick's subsequent work.
Jim Hoberman, October issue 20, Spring 1982
She Had Her Gun Already, 1978, 28 min
With Lydia Lunch and Pat Place, and set in the Lower East Side, NYC, this is a film about unequal power between two people (of any gender), or the repressive side of a person in conflict with the sexual powerful side. Karyn Kay calls it ..'The contemporary unspeakable: women's anger and hatred of women at the crucial moment of overpowering identification and obsessional thralldom.'
Rod Stoneman in The Directory of British Film and Video Artists (John Libbey 1994)
Staten Island, 1978, 4 min
Pat Place plays a creature who lives in an old abandoned barge on a rubbish strewn beach. The mood is post-apocalyptic and the music of Telstar mixed with domestic kitchen clatter. V.D.
"the quintessential No Wave filmmaker." J.Hoberman
Read more about Vivienne Dick on Luxonline
Afterimages ordering information
Afterimages DVDs are only available for purchase by libraries and educational institutions for onsite use. They are not currently available for purchase by individuals.
Each Afterimages DVD individually costs £100 + VAT & postage (£2
UK / £3 EU/ £4 World)
SPECIAL OFFER 20% OFF. PURCHASE ALL 4 AFTERIMAGES DVDS FOR £320 (ex VAT and shipping)
The order form is available by clicking the link below. Please compete it and send to LUX, 18 Shacklewell Lane, London E8 2EZ, UK. If you wish to pay by credit card please call us or download, print and fax the credit card payment form with your shop order form. PLEASE NOTE we can only accept Visa, Mastercard, Visa Electron, Maestro and Solo. We cannot accept American Express or Diners cards.
Shop
order form (PDF, 42k) 
Shop order form (Word, 40k) 
Shop order form (Rich Text,
1k) 
Credit Card payment form
(Excel spreadsheet, 20k)
Credit Card payment
form (Rich Text, 4k)
If you need Acrobat Reader to view PDF files, click on the button below to
visit the Adobe website. Please note that most computers already have this
installed.
Other LUX resources for universities & libraries
As well as the Afterimages series of DVD releases, LUX offers a range of resources for universities, colleges and libraries:
_ Film finding service -LUX can source and negotiate film/DVD purchases for libraries, drawing on its extensive international network and experience to source hard to find artists' film and video works and negotiate best prices. To discuss further please contact Ben on 020 7503 3980
- LUX makes available a range of DVDs, videos, CDs and books relating to artists' film and video which are available for purchase.
- The LUX website contains resources for students including a list of relevant reading materials, places to buy videos and DVDs, links to university courses, etc.
- As well as the main LUX website, the LUX Online website provides extensive resources on UK artists’ moving image work including streaming video clips, essays on British artists, stills, critical writing, themed tours and other useful teaching aids
- The LUX newswire is a monthly email bulletin with details about relevant upcoming screenings, exhibitions, publications etc.
- All the films and videos from the archive are also available to hire for college screenings at a reduced rate, and many are also available for library purchase.
- For students based in and around London, LUX has a regular programme of screenings and events – details are always included in the Newswire.
For more information on LUX and what it can offer universities and students, please contact us for further details.
