While many commercial film labs are shutting there doors, a counter movement is taking place in the form of the international network of artist-run film labs. The Australian experimental filmmaker, Richard Tuohy – a prominent figure in this cinematic d-i-y turn – sees this new phase for the traditional media as an opportunity; as a chance for the film artist to directly engage with the once inaccessible, now too often discarded tools of the traditional film lab. 

Tuohy's hand crafted cinema presents us with multiple visual manipulations in camera, in printer techniques, in experimental processing procedures and in projection to sculpt an activated and reanimated reality which collectively represent a distinctively cinematic experience. More visual then cerebral, these pictures move, and with an energy unique to film. While covering a range of techniques, strategies and visual themes, they each share the same tenacious unfolding of a set of abstract possibilities from out of singular visual ideas. This program presents eight hand-processed and d-i-y printed 16mm film works from the artists recent output. The films, though diverse, are all highly abstract and tightly structured and share a fascination with the visual possibilities of basic traditional film technology.

These films are all firmly situated in the hand crafted film tradition. All works are hand processed from camera neg, optical sound neg, intermediates and opticals to final prints. This is done in part out of necessity, but also out of a sense of opportunity; while the closure of commercial film labs has meant that it has become increasingly difficult to access traditional laboratory services, it has also created an opportunity for artists to get their hands on this now largely redundant equipment, providing access for experimentation and exploration of a new set of creative possibilities. These works speak of that new opportunity! – Richard Tuohy

Filmmaker in attendance! 

Programme (All films on 16mm)- Iron-wood, 2009, 7 minutes- Flyscreen, 2010, 8 minutes- Seoul Electric, 2012, 7 minutes- Tree Lines, 2009, 7 minutes- Ginza Strip, 2014, 9 minutes - Etienne’s Hand , 2011, 13 minutes- Blue Line Chicago, 2014, 10 minutes- Dot Matrix, 2013, 16 minutes, 2 x 16mm

SIGHT UNSEEN (Film synopses on view)http://sightunseenbaltimore.com/NANO LABhttp://www.nanolab.com.au/