With so much hipness, drinking, and so many white balloons in one industrial space, opening night of PICA’s Timed-Based Art Festival gave me serious art school flashbacks. THEESatisfaction were on point, and Portland’s Portraitist Michael Horwitz was drawing people in exchange for $5 in front of a gently-scrawled sign warning that “Glitter glue takes a while to dry.”
But the best thing I saw was LA artist Jennifer West’s “Flashlight Filmstrip Projections,” a collection of 35mm and 70mm filmstrips suspended in the dark. Audience members use flashlights or their phones to illuminate the filmstrips, making huge, shaky projections out of text, rejected film from Hollywood productions, and film leader. There were also bright geometric patterns and kissy imprints. This is what it looked like:
The effect was similar to what happens when you actually print from developed film, by pushing light through a negative, enlarging the image, pulling it into focus. West’s piece is inspired by the shift from celluloid to digital filmmaking—she actually worked with the last 70mm optical printer to put it together. But it’s also vaguely goofy in the greatest way possible. If you ever played with a flashlight as a kid, you know what I mean.
Flashlight Filmstrip Projections will be up at Fashion Tech through Sept. 30 as part of PICA’s Time-Based Art Festival.