DE_CONSTRUCTIV GARDEN TALES Recent Video Works by Kaz Rahman
[box title=”Thursday, October 20 at 6:30 PM Kaz Rahman hosts a reception at Gallery 103, A+A bldg. Enjoy Rahman’s 5 garden tales, recent video works showcasing a collage of elements that combine hand-drawn and animated gestures with live action and archival footage.” border_width=”3″ border_color=”#dd9933″ border_style=”solid” align=”left”] [/box]
OCTOBER 10-31, 2022. A+A GALLERY 103.
These recent video works showcase a collage of elements that combine hand-drawn and animated gestures with live action and archival. An architectural framework wraps these 5 garden tales which include a dreamy journey through sun-soaked streets, face masks, borders and the 1918 Influenza Pandemic (A Short History of Face Masks), voyage/shadows, waterscape/sea creatures, cloudscape/birds (Lampedusa), an abstract landscape through chaos and serenity (Digital Dervish + Flamenco Sonic) and tributes to the formal possibilities and joys of early experimental cinema (Grand Theatre and Picture Palace: A Carnivalesque Homage to Hans Richter and Bees Mechanique: A Pollenizing Homage to Fernand Leger).
Artist Bio:
Kaz Rahman has worked extensively as Visual Artist, Filmmaker and Academic with both commercial and public institutions, festivals and broadcasters over the last 20 years. His work has played in film festivals and venues such as Anthology Film Archives (New York City), National Film Board of Canada (Toronto), India Habitat Centre (New Delhi), Salar Jung Museum (Hyderabad), Andy Warhol Museum (Pittsburgh), The San Jose Museum of Art (California), Bogazici Film Festival (Istanbul), SUFICINE Festival (Konya) and broadcast on TV24 (Turkey) and has been featured in publications such as The Times of India, The Hindu, The New Indian Express (India), Daily Sabah and Star Gazette (Turkey).
As a visual artist he has had several solo exhibitions over the last two decades and as a filmmaker his work continues to be informed by the act of drawing in cinematic terms such as the use of compositional line and color alongside sculptural form and architectural space. Some of his recent work has combined the marks of drawing with filmmaking and made use of animated techniques. His solo painting exhibitions can be described as ‘Contemporary Islamic Painting’ where an emphasis on line, pattern and color intersect with the natural elements and a repetition and mix of cultural and pop iconography. In some early exhibitions such as Magic Carpet and Deccani Ark (both predominantly painting) he has used classical elements from Ottoman, Persian, Mughal and Deccani work mixed with new materials and ideas. Other shows such as Flood in the Sky (photography) and the more recent Cinematic Landscapes (painting) have intertwined with filmic approaches to shots and sequences.
Rahman is the writer/director and editor of two feature films (Salaat 2010 and Deccani Souls 2012) which borrow from documentary styles of filmmaking; these independently produced feature films can be described as ‘Art Cinema’ in the tradition of 1960’s European and 1990’s Iranian cinema while also exploring the thin line between fiction and documentary and themes such as time, memory and narrative dreams. He developed an original program on the Arts for the Turkish broadcaster TRT World (English) with different one-word themes each episode; Green and Blue (2015) is a pilot episode around the theme of poetry that combines high-profile interviews, live performances and original cinematic poems. He has taught filmmaking extensively at universities and colleges in Hyderabad (India), Pittsburgh (USA), Istanbul (Turkey) Plymouth and Canterbury (UK) and is currently Lecturer in Time-Based Art at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, USA.
LIST OF WORKS IN EXHIBITION, LEFT TO RIGHT:
A SHORT HISTORY OF FACE MASKS
2022 RT: 10 min.
Super 8 and Video with Archival
A dreamy journey through sun-soaked streets, face masks, borders and the 1918 Influenza Pandemic. It is also a reference to the endless cycle of history repeating itself.
LAMPEDUSA
2019 RT: 26 min.
Video and Animation
Originally made as part of Eduardo Miranda’s live opera Lampedusa, the film is divided into three acts that encompass voyage/shadows, waterscape/sea creatures, cloudscape/birds.
DIGITAL DERVISH + FLAMENCO SONIC
2022 RT: 30 min.
360 Video and Animation
Originally made as part of Hedy Hurban’s live performance Digital Dervish + Flamenco Sonic the film provides an abstract landscape to the story through chaos and serenity.
GRAND THEATRE AND PICTURE PALACE: A CARNIVALESQUE HOMAGE TO HANS RICHTER
2018 RT: 2 min.
Video and Animation with Archival
An ode to one of the original theatres in Plymouth (UK) and a reference to the spectacle of a new art form from its stage-like opening to its free intermingling of theatrical forms, circus-like performances and animated floating creatures. It is also a tribute to the formal possibilities and joy of early experimental cinema with its use of Richter’s hypnotic Rhythmus 21 (1921).
BEES MECANIQUE: A POLLENIZING HOMAGE TO FERNAND LEGER
2020 RT: 4 min.
Video and animation with Archival
Represents the beauty and some of the unknown complexities of the work of bees through experimental abstraction. Bees are a vital part of nature that continue their ordained job of collecting nectar and zooming from flower to flower. The images evoke a spirit of movement in a macro world. It is also a tribute to the formal possibilities and joy of early experimental cinema with its use of Leger’s hypnotic Le Ballet Mecanique (1924) which juxtaposes the industrial ‘ballet’ of a century ago.