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Ant Farm and The Video Art of Chip Lord is Focus of Artist Talk and Schnitzer Cinema

Lord appears in conjunction with the exhibition “West of Center: Art and the Counterculture Experiment in America, 1965-1977.”

 

EUGENE, Ore. -- (April 5, 2013) – Chip Lord, founder of the architecture and media collaborative Ant Farm, is in Eugene for events in conjunction with the exhibition “West of Center: Art and the Counterculture Experiment in America, 1965-1977.” Lord will showcase his video art as part of Schnitzer Cinema and present an artist talk on the history of Ant Farm.

 

On Wednesday, April 17, at 7 p.m., “The Video Art of Chip Lord” is featured at Schnitzer Cinema, which starts the multi-day film festival, Cinema Pacific. As a founding member of Ant Farm (1968-1978), Chip Lord produced the video art classics “Media Burn” and “The Eternal Frame.” Since 1980, he has worked independently and in collaboration producing video installations and single channel videotapes. Lord will present and discuss his work, which straddles documentary and experimental genres, often mixing the two, and has been shown widely at film and video festivals and in museums. Lord will screen the works “Awakening from the 20th Century” (1999, 35 min.), “Une Ville de l’Avenir” (2011, 12 min.)  and “In Transit” (2011, 22 min.).

 

As always, Schnitzer Cinema programs are a great deal for cinephiles, providing a movie followed by a live or Skype dialogue with a special guest, and popcorn and soda for all – all free of charge. Schnitzer Cinema programs are a presentation of the JSMA and Cinema Pacific.

 

On Thursday, April 18 at 6 p.m., Lord presents “Ant Farm: Then and Now,” presenting recent projects and including an historical introduction to the radical art and architecture group. Ant Farm, founded in 1968, engaged in fringe research in architecture on two levels – a utopian, image-based practice using media, and a practical, do-it-yourself activity in air-supported structures and nomadic living. Co-sponsored by the Departments of Architecture, Art, and the History of Art and Architecture, the talk is at 100 Willamette Hall, 1371 East 13th Ave.

 

Ant Farm crossed disciplinary boundaries into performance, multi-media, and public art within the context of radical changes going on in the art world and the social landscape in the early 1970’s. In 1970, Ant Farm travelled cross country in a “Media Van” shooting video and networking with other artists.  Ant Farm Media van v.08 [Time Capsule], an interactive sculpture made in 2008, invites users to leave a “donation” to a digital Time Capsule, but also functions as a small video theater showing works made in 1970.  This on-going project migrates across time and space and intersects with new ubiquitous technologies.

 

From April 19-25, the Bijou Art Cinemas, 492 E 13th Avenue, Eugene, screens the documentary “Space Land and Time Underground Adventures with Ant Farm.” The opening night screening, Friday, April 19 at 7 p.m., will be introduced by filmmaker Elizabeth Federici. This is the first independent video documentary to delve into the work of the renegade 1970s art/architecture collective.

 

Chip Lord was trained as an architect and is an artist who works with video and photography. In 2005 a retrospective of his video work was shown at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arts Reina Sofia in Madrid, Spain. In 2010 he completed a public video art piece for the remodeled Bradley Terminal at LAX Airport titled “To & From LAX.”   He is Professor Emeritus in the Film & Digital Media Department at U. C. Santa Cruz.

 

Ant Farm is featured in the exhibition, “West of Center: Art and the Counterculture Experiment in America, 1965-1997,” on view at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art through April 28. Curated by Elissa Auther and Adam Lerner, “West of Center: Art and the Counterculture Experiment in America, 1965-1977” is organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver. The exhibition is supported, in part, with funds provided by the Western States Arts Federation (WESTAF) and the National Endowment for the Arts. It is made possible at the JSMA by the Coeta and Donald Barker Special Exhibitions Endowment Fund and JSMA members.

 

About the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art

The University of Oregon's Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art is a premier Pacific Northwest museum for exhibitions and collections of historic and contemporary art based in a major university setting. The mission of the museum is to enhance the University of Oregon’s academic mission and to further the appreciation and enjoyment of the visual arts for the general public.  The JSMA features significant collections galleries devoted to art from China, Japan, Korea, America and elsewhere as well as changing special exhibition galleries.  The JSMA is one of six museums in Oregon accredited by the American Association of Museums.

 

The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art is located on the University of Oregon campus at 1430 Johnson Lane. Museum hours are 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesdays, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays through Sundays. Admission is $5 for adults and $3 for senior citizens. Free admission is given to ages 18 and under, JSMA members, college students with ID, and University of Oregon faculty, staff and students. For information, contact the JSMA, 541-346-3027.

 

About the University of Oregon

The University of Oregon is among the 108 institutions chosen from 4,633 U.S. universities for top-tier designation of "Very High Research Activity" in the 2010 Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. The UO also is one of two Pacific Northwest members of the Association of American Universities.

 

Contact: Debbie Williamson Smith, 541-346-0942, debbiews@uoregon.edu

 

Links: Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, http://jsma.uoregon.edu

Cinema Pacific, http://cinemapacific.uoregon.edu