Barbara Hammer: The Fearless Frame

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Sync Touch (Barbara Hammer, 1981)Seminal American experimental filmmaker Barbara Hammer is the protagonist of a month-long retrospective at the Tate Modern (3-26 February). The nineteen programmes that comprise this almost-complete survey of her work include from her latest films  as the premiere in the UK of Maya Deren's sink (2011) to some of his earlier super-8 films that have been rarely screened. Hammer will also re-enact her 1979 performance Changing the Shape of Film in the Turbine Hall and present three performative lectures on different aspects of her work. Theretrospective will combine Hammer's films with the works of other filmmakers whom Hammer considers crucial influences on her own work, such as Maya Deren, Chick Strand, Stan Brakhage, Shirley Clarke, Gunvor Nelson, Chris Welsby, Gina Carducci, Cecilia Dougherty, John Greyson, William E Jones, Liz Rosenfeld, Emily Mode, Scott Berry, Kirstin Rossi and more.

Curated by Barbara Hammer and Stuart Comer

Barbara Hammer: The Fearless Frame
Tate Modern, London
Friday 3 February – Sunday 26 February 2012

Friday 3 February 2012, 19h
Programme 1: Maya Deren and Me
- Maya Deren’s Sink (Barbara Hammer, US 2010, video, 30 min) (made with Gina Carducci)
- Ritual in Transfigured Time (Maya Deren, US 1946, 16mm, silent, 14 min)
- I Was / I Am (Barbara Hammer, US 1973, 16mm, 6 min)
- Jane Brakhage (Barbara Hammer, US 1975, 16mm, 10 min)
- Hymn to Her (Stan Brakhage, US 1974, 16mm, silent, 2 min)
- Psychosynthesis (Barbara Hammer, US 1975, 16mm, 8 min)
- X (Barbara Hammer, US 1973, 16mm, 8 min)

Saturday 4 February 2012, 19h
Programme 2: Hammer Super 8
- Barbara Ward Will Never Die (Barbara Hammer, US 1968, Super 8 transferred to video, 3 min)
- Schizy (Barbara Hammer, US 1968, Super 8 transferred to video, silent, 4 min)
- Play or ‘Yes,’ ‘Yes,’ ‘Yes’ (Barbara Hammer, US 1970, Super 8 transferred to video, silent, 11 min)
- Elegy (Barbara Hammer, US 1970, Super 8 transferred to video, silent, 3 min)
- Marie and Me (Barbara Hammer, US 1970, 8mm transferred to video, silent, 15 min)
- Traveling (Barbara Hammer, US 1970–71, 8mm transferred to video, silent, 14 min)
- Yellow Hammer (Barbara Hammer, US 1973, 8mm transferred to video, silent, 3 min)

Sunday 5 February 2012, 17h
Programme 3: For An Active Cinema
- Sync Touch (Barbara Hammer, US 1981, 16mm, 10 min)
- Double Strength (Barbara Hammer, US 1978, 16mm, 16 min)
- Menses (Barbara Hammer, US 1974, 16mm, 4 min)
- Superdyke (Barbara Hammer, US 1975, 16mm, 25 min)

Sunday 5 February 2012, 19h
Programme 4: Hammer Expanded
Barbara Hammer revisits historical expanded cinema performances from the 1970s in the Turbine Hall.

- Changing the Shape of Film (Barbara Hammer, US 1979 / 2012, 16mm film and performance, 20 min)

‘Constrained by the limits of the rectangular film frame and screen projection, I created a more liberated space for my film Available Space 1979. Similar to Deren, I am the protagonist in the mise-en scene, but instead of walking from space to space, I am seen literally pushing the edges of the window frame, the film frame, and spatial frame in eight different scenes. I moved the projections around the architectural space of the theatres and sometimes out of doors or windows, depending on the space. Not only was I able to place the film image within and around the corners, ceilings, floors and walls of the room selectively, I was also able to move my audience physically. I believe that an active audience engaged perceptually, intellectually, and physically with cinema encourages its members to become more politically active in the world.’ Barbara Hammer

Thursday 9 February 2012, 18:30h
Programme 5: Resistance
- Lover / Other: The Story of Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore (Barbara Hammer, US 2006, video, sound by Pamela Z, 55 min)
- Resisting Paradise (Barbara Hammer, US 2003, 16mm, sound by Laetitia Sonami, 80 min)

Friday 10 February 2012, 19h
Programme 6: Fragile Light
- Place Mattes (Barbara Hammer, US 1987, 16mm, sound by Terry Setter, 9 min)
- Optic Nerve (Barbara Hammer, US 1985, 16mm, sound by Helen Thorington, 16 min)
- Endangered (Barbara Hammer, US 1988, 16mm, sound by Helen Thorington, 19 min)
- Sanctus (Barbara Hammer, US 1990, 16mm, sound by Neil B Rolnick, 19 min)

Saturday 11 February 2012, 19h
Programme 7: Shattering the Mirror Stage
- Generations (Barbara Hammer and Gina Carducci, US 2010, 16mm, 30 min)
- Bridges-Go-Round (Shirley Clarke, US 1958, 16mm, 7 min)
- Superdyke (Barbara Hammer, US 1975, 16mm, 25 min)
- SuperQueer (Kirstin Rossi, US 2006, video, 6 min)
- Fagtactics (Scott Berry, Canada 2002, Super 8 transferred to video, 5 min)
- Dyketactics x 2 (Barbara Hammer, US 1974, 16mm, sound by Alix Dobkin, 8 min)
- UNTITLED (Dyketactics Revisited) (Liz Rosenfeld, US 2005, 8 min)

Sunday 12 February 2012, 17h
Programme 8: Seeing with a Horse's Eye
- A Horse Is Not a Metaphor (Barbara Hammer, US 2008, video, 30 min)
- Qualia Diaries (Emily Mode, US 2009, video, 17 min)
- Sanctus (Barbara Hammer, US 1990, 16mm, sound by Neil B. Rolnick, 19 min)

Tuesday 14 February 2012, 18:30h
Programme 9: The Goddess Zeitgeist
- Women’s Rites or the Truth is the Daughter of Time (Barbara Hammer, US 1974, 16mm, 8 min)
- Moon Goddess (Barbara Hammer and Gloria Churchman, US 1976, 16mm, 15 min)
- The Lesbos Film (Barbara Hammer, US 1981, 16mm, 27 min)
- The Great Goddess (Barbara Hammer, US 1977, 16mm, 25 min)

Wednesday 15 February 2012, 18:30h
Programme 10: Life in the 80s: Struggles in Conservative Times
- No No Nooky TV (Barbara Hammer, US 1987, 16mm, 12 min)
- Two Bad Daughters (Barbara Hammer and Paula Levine, US 1988, video, 12 min)
- Claudia (Cecilia Dougherty, US 1987, video, 8 min)
- Doll House (Barbara Hammer, US 1984, 16mm, 4 min)
- The Perils of Pedagogy (John Greyson, US 1984, video, 5 min)
- Snow Job: The Media Hysteria of AIDS (Barbara Hammer, US 1986, video, 9 min)
- Endangered (Barbara Hammer, US 1988, 16mm, sound by Helen Thorington, 19 min)

Friday 17 February 2012, 19h
Programme 11: Hidden Histories
- Nitrate Kisses (Barbara Hammer, US 1992, 16mm, 67 min)
- The Female Closet (Barbara Hammer, US 1998, video, 58 min)

Saturday 18 February 2012, 12h
Programme 12: Barbara Hammer Study Day: Performative Lectures and Dialogues
Barbara Hammer presents three performative lectures addressing three aspects of her work, each followed by discussion with a respondent and the audience.

The sessions include: 1. Abstracting, Archiving and The Lesbian Museum; 2. System Breakdown: Medical Approaches; 3. Hammer Expanded: Performance and Installation.

Saturday 18 February 2012, 19h
Programme 13: Land and Water
- Pools (Barbara Hammer and Barbara Klutinis, US 1981, 16mm, 9 min)
- Stream Line (Chris Welsby, UK 1976, 16mm, 8 min)
- Stone Circles (Barbara Hammer, US 1983, 16mm, 7 min)
- Waterfall (Chick Strand, US 1967, 16mm, 3 min)
- Pond and Waterfall (Barbara Hammer, US 1982, silent, 15 min)
- My Name is Oona (Gunvor Nelson, Sweden 1969, 16mm, 10 min)
- Bent Time (Barbara Hammer, US 1983, 16mm, sound by Pauline Oliveros, 21 min)

Sunday 19 February 2012, 14h
Programme 14: Devotion: A Film About Ogawa Productions
- Devotion: A Film About Ogawa Productions (Barbara Hammer, US 2000, video, 84 min)

Sunday 19 February 2012, 17h
Programme 15: The Scopophiliac Audience
- Audience (Barbara Hammer, US 1982, 16mm, 32 min)
- Multiple Orgasm (Barbara Hammer, US 1976, 16mm, silent, 6 min)

Friday 24 February 2012, 19h
Programme 16: Breaking the Law: Barbara Hammer and William E Jones
- Blue Film No. 6 or Love Is Where you Find It (Barbara Hammer, 1998, Super 8 transferred to video, 3 min)
- Film Montages (For Peter Roehr) (William E. Jones, US 2006, video, 11 min)
- Lesbian Bar Raid (Anonymous, date unknown, Peru, video, 3 min)
- Mansfield 1962 (William E Jones, US 2006, video, silent, 9 min)
- History Lessons (Barbara Hammer, US 2000, video, 66 min)

Saturday 25 February 2012, 19h
Programme 17: Emily Roysdon
Artist Emily Roysdon has been commissioned by Tate Modern to develop this special event as a response to the work of Barbara Hammer.

Emily Roysdon (born 1977) is a New York- and Stockholm-based artist and writer. Her working method is interdisciplinary: recent projects take the form of performance, photographic installations, printmaking, text, video, curating and collaborating. Roysdon recently developed the concept ‘ecstatic resistance’ to address the impossible and imaginary in politics. The concept debuted with simultaneous shows at X Initiative in New York and Grand Arts in Kansas City. Roysdon is editor and co-founder of the queer feminist journal and artist collective, LTTR, and she is a contributing member with the band MEN.

Sunday 26 February 2012, 14h
Programme 18: Out in South Africa
- Diving Women of Jeju-do (Barbara Hammer, US 2007, video, 30 min)
- Out in South Africa (Barbara Hammer, US 1994, video, 51 min)

Sunday 26 February 2012, 17h
Programme 19: For Florrie
- Dyketactics (Barbara Hammer, US 1974, 16mm, 4 min)
- Women I Love (Barbara Hammer, US 1976, 16mm, 25 min)
- Tender Fictions (Barbara Hammer, US 1995, 16mm, 58 min)
- Still Point (Barbara Hammer, US 1989, 16mm, 9 min)

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