The 2014-15 season of the Schnitzer Cinema, curated by Cinema Pacific director Richard Herskowitz, is devoted to American experimental media, with a special emphasis on the history of American avant-garde film. In this, the third program of the series, artist Julia Oldham screens her video art (see program below) and presents an artist's talk.
Casting herself in the role of lover, wanderer and scientist, artist Julia Oldham combines science fiction and dreamy mythology to create fantasy worlds that she inhabits in her videos. As the main character in each of her videos, Oldham falls in love with a coyote, tearfully sends off a research probe to sacrifice itself in a black hole, and tries to capture infinity by engaging in increasingly absurd mathematical tasks. She reimagines the birth of the universe as a series of complex interactions inside the 4 bellies of a colossal and hungry elk. Oldham collaborates with scientists to tease out poetic and wondrous elements of physics and nature, which she then weaves into romantic fairytales and myths in her video works. Her work frequently combines live action, animation and handmade costume and sets; and music and soundscape play an important role in her storytelling.
The films
Mud Lair (in collaboration with Jenny Kroik), 2013 (3:30 minutes), a musical fairytale about a woman burying the memory of her coyote lover.
Farewell, Brave Voyager, 2012 (4:30 minutes), in which we witness the launch of InfiniG, a black hole research probe. InfiniG makes the ultimate sacrifice for science by gathering data while approaching the event horizon of a black hole.
Infinitely Impossible (10:30 minutes), a story of unrequited love between a woman and Infinity. The character engages in increasingly absurd tasks in order to achieve the infinite, at the expense of her own sanity.
From These Woods (with Chad Stayrook as Really Large Numbers), 2013 (7 minutes), a fairytale about a deer who can travel through dreams.
Shadow Wolf (with Chad Stayrook as Really Large Numbers), 2013 (2:30 minutes), Winter Wolf (Canis Lupus Hibernus) and Shadow Wolf (Canis Lupus Umbrus): These rare creatures are hybrid human/wolves that until recently were believed to be mythological beings who did not live on earth, though recent sightings have been reported, primarily in the Northeastern and Northwestern United States. The most notable characteristic of this species pair is their symbiotic relationship: Shadow Wolf is in fact Winter Wolf’s shadow. Although this connection is occasionally tenuous and violent, the Winter Wolf is never without its shadow for more than a few moments at a time. In fact, one cannot survive without the other and Winter Wolf and Shadow Wolf rely on each other for nourishment and companionship.
Radio Prairie, 2010 (3:40 minutes). During her 2010 residency at Bernheim Arboretum, Oldham created a series of videos that combine science fiction and performance. She developed a fictional identity as a technician for Possumhaw Plant Electrics, a company that specializes in measuring radio/electrical emanations from plant forms. Under this guise, she pursued a series of four strange experiments on the arboretum grounds. In Radio Prairie she tuned into prairie plants using a homemade crystal radio and tiny antennae attached to each plant.
About Julia Oldham
Julia Oldham was raised by a physicist, an avid gardener, and a pack of dogs in rural Maryland, and her childhood was filled with adventures in the woods, bee stings, drawings, and science experiments. Oldham studied art history at St. Mary’s College of Maryland and then received her MFA from the University of Chicago.Her work has been exhibited at institutions including MoMA PS1 in NYC; the Dia Foundation in NYC; the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, IL; and Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, DC. She has been supported by Artadia, the Fund for Art and Dialogue, NYC; Art in General, NYC; and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council in NYC. She lives and works in Eugene, OR and Brooklyn, NY.
About Schnitzer Cinema
Schnitzer Cinema screenings are free and include free popcorn and soda and are brought to you in partnership with Cinema Pacific and the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art.
