Survivalist Cinema
2007-2017
Wood, branches, solar panel and portable battery, video
With special thanks to Dave Bonta of Sunnyside Solar.
Survivalist Cinema is a solar-powered micro-cinema fashioned after a wilderness lean-to. In 2014 the cinema screened environmental dystopia and survivalist films from the 1970s. In 2015 it housed a screening of work by five other artists that I organized called Anthroposcenic. In 2016 it housed moving image work by three artists for STREAM 3. The lean-to is a stand-in for the outmoded drive-in movie theater (the wooden drive-in screen can be used as material for the lean-to structure in future iterations). The screen that once reflected light now absorbs it through the solar panel and DIY mobile battery apparatus. Cinema as collective experience is recast as an experience of isolation, or cinema as waystation.
View the Survivalist Cinema movie trailers here
STREAM (2014)
Survivalist Cinema was realized for STREAM, an exhibition organized by 2 Chairs (Cindy Smith with Wolfgang Berkowski, Rachel Stevens and Mae Brody), that took place over a weekend, August 9th & 10th, 2014, near South Windham, VT. Artists participating in STREAM: Edward Allington (United Kingdom), Anthea Behm (Australia), Josef Bull (Sweden), Jack Carr (US), Ingela Ihrman (Sweden), Erin Ikeler (US), Allan Kaprow (US-Allan Kaprow Estate), Rachel Stevens (US), Patricia Thornley (US).
Download the 2014 STREAM catalog (PDF)
STREAM 2
Survivalist Cinema returned for STREAM 2: Helpless, a second exhibition held on August 1st and 2nd 2015, this time housing a program of experimental shorts called Anthroposcenic. Artists participating in STREAM 2: Helpless: Peggy Ahwesh (US), Torsten Zenas Burns and Darrin Martin (US), Tony Do (US), Ingela Ihrman (Sweden), E.E. Ikeler (US), H. P. Lovecraft (US), Shana Moulton (US), David Nash (UK), Caleb Nussear (US), Jennifer Reeves (US), Rachel Stevens (US), George Wichelns (US), Brian Zeeger and Rachel Frank (US).
Download the 2015 STREAM 2 catalog
ANTHROPOSCENIC (screening at STREAM 2)
A program of moving image work to be screened in the Survivalist Cinema, a solar-powered micro-cinema housed in a wilderness lean-to. These experimental shorts re-imagine the ‘figure in the landscape’ trope, calling upon consumer objects with mystical properties, “machinema,” low-tech sci-fi performance, post-production, and decomposition to augment or devolve bodies and personhood in relationship to the landscape.
Torsten Zenas Burns and Darrin Martin, ARK3: THE WATERWAY SCENARIOS (2015, video, 13 min.), Brian Zegeer and Rachel Frank, Far Rockaway (2012, mixed-media animation, digital video, 4:53 min.), Peggy Ahwesh, She Puppet (2001, video, 15 min.), Jennifer Reeves, Landfill 16 (2011, 16mm film transferred to video, 9 min.) , Shana Moulton, Mindplace Thoughtstream (2014, video, 11:57 min.)
STREAM 3
Survivalist Cinema returned again for STREAM 3: Capitalocene, the third iteration of the weekend exhibition on August 6th and 7th. Artists participating in STREAM 3: Peggy Ahwesh (US), Annie Berman (US), E.E. Ikeler (US), Yu Jin (US), Juneau Projects, (UK), Louise Lawler, (US), Arrow Mueller, (US), David Nash (UK), Kenneth Pietrobono (US), Rachel Stevens (US), Zoe Walsh (US), Marina Zurkow (US).
Stream 3: Holocene, Anthropocene, Capitalocene – catalog
Survivalist Cinema Playlist at STREAM 3
Marina Zurkow, Elixir II, 2009, 5:00 minutes, continuous digital animation, color, sound.
Sound for installation version by Pat Irwin, Peggy Ahwesh, The Third Body, 2007, 8:40 min, color, sound, Annie Berman, UTOPIA 1.0: Post-Neo-Futurist-Capitalism in 3D!, 2015
upon request: David Nash, Wooden Boulder 1978 – 2015, 2015, 13:05, color.
STREAM Chapter 4
Stream: Chapter 4 press release
In 2017, at STREAM 4, one video was screened in the Survivalist Cinema – In Comparison by Harun Farocki (2009).