Chip Lord Unfolding Video Festival
January 4-8, 2021
Rena Bransten Gallery and Minnesota Street Project Adjacent present the Chip Lord Unfolding Video Festival, a limited-time streaming event. Debuting over three evenings, the programs are available to view online through January 8.
Each program features a selection of works with a never-before-seen introduction by Lord. The 14 videos continue the creative process pioneered by Ant Farm, the collective founded by Lord and Doug Michels which worked on the radical fringe of architecture and art from 1968 – 1978.
In conjunction with the festival, Lord will be in live conversation with Rudolf Frieling (Curator of Media Arts, SFMOMA) on January 7. Register here.
These events are organized in conjunction with the exhibition Chip Lord: Folding Back Time, Form, + Format at Rena Bransten Gallery through January 30.
Screening Schedule
Media Burn, Chevrolet Training Film: The Remake, & other works
Run time | 60 min.
“Media Burn” (1975) | by Ant Farm (Chip Lord, Doug Michels, Curtis Schreier with Tom Weinberg)
From the SFMOMA collection, Lord presents the uncut, uncensored original version of “Media Burn.”
“Chevrolet Training Film: The Remake” (1978) | by Phillip Garner and Chip Lord
Also from the SFMOMA collection, “Chevrolet Training Film” is an authentic remake of the 1962 GM training film “Have we got a deal?”
Selections from Selected Works, 1977 – 1984
Run time | 55 min.
Lord chooses his favorite works from the decade after Ant Farm dissolved. The screening features a “counter commercial” to the 1981 Ronald Reagan inauguration in “Get Ready to March” (1981).
In “Easy Living” (1981) by Chip Lord & Mickey McGowan, cars are the characters in an American suburb.
Motorist
Run time | 70 min.
“Motorist” (1989) follows a solitary driver as he crosses the southwest in a 1963 Thunderbird. The protagonist (played by Richard Marcus of St. Elsewhere, Tremors, and The Pretender) monologues his journey in between encounters with a diner waitress, gas station attendant, and artist before reaching his destination.
Shot on video almost a decade before Hollywood switched from film to digital, “Motorist” pushed the boundaries of the medium.