Colour Field Film and Video
Friday 21 November – Saturday 22 November 2008

The two programmes in this series look at the myriad ways in which
'colour fields' have been explored in artists' films and videos. The
work included spans the history of experimental film and video, from
some of the earliest avant-garde films of the 1920s to contemporary
digital abstraction. Links are explored between these films and videos
and certain trends in abstract painting, from constructivist aesthetics
through to colour field painters, including Mark Rothko. The use of
colour in the works that comprise these programmes is sometimes
celebratory or playful, but always critical and direct.

Curated by Simon Payne
Simon Payne is a video artist. Most recently his work has shown in a
programme entitled Aleatory Colour: Perception / Memory / Material
curated by Peter Gidal, for the Serpentine Gallery. He has a PhD from
the Royal College of Art and is a Senior Lecturer in Communication,
Film and Media Studies at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge.

Programme One: Kinetic Colour
Friday 21 November 2008, 19.00

The films and videos in this programme use colour in swathes, lines,
bits, or frame-by-frame, engaging every portion of the screen. They
involve abstract paradigms related to painterly aesthetics, weaving and
digital synthesis. The animation, flicker and modulation of fields and
frames of colour create experiences that are vivid and distinctly
phenomenal.

- Walther Ruttmann, Opus II-IV, Germany 1923-25, 10'
- Oskar Fischinger, Motion Painting no.1,USA 1947, 11'
- Len Lye, Color Cry, USA 1952-53, 3'
- Rose Lowder, Parcelle, France 1979, 3'
- Paul Sharits, Ray Gun Virus, USA 1966, 14'
- Peter Donebauer, Entering, UK 1974, 8'   
- Stephen Beck, Video Weavings, USA 1976, 9'
- reMI, uta zet, Austria 2001, 5'   
- Bas van Koolwijk, Five, Netherlands 2002, 3'
- Tina Frank, Chronomops, Austria 2005, 3'
- Simon Payne, New Ratio, UK 2007, 2' 

Programme duration approx 71 min

Tate Modern  Starr Auditorium
£5 (£4 concessions), booking recommended
For tickets book online or call 020 7887 8888

Programme Two: Contrasting Surfaces
Saturday 22 November 2008, 19.00

This programme presents films and videos that explore different
relationships between the substance of the recorded image and the flat
coloured surface of the screen, which is often accentuated by filters
or mattes. In some of the films, such as Ming Green and Color Aid, the
subject matter itself refers to flat surfaces of colour. In many of the
other pieces the prominence of the grain or pixels, and the use of
printing processes or compositing, sets up an interplay between the
layers of the image and screen.

- Jennifer Nightingale, Knitting Pattern, UK 2006, 3'   
- Chick Strand, Anselmo, USA 1967, 4'
- Gregory Markopoulos, Ming Green, USA 1966, 7'
- Stan Brakhage, III, IV and V (from the Roman Numerals series), USA 1979/80, 9'
- Richard Serra, ColorAid, USA 1970/71, 36'
- George Barber, Tilt, UK 1983, 4'
- Nicky Hamlyn, Telly, UK 1995, 4'
- Vincent Grenier, Color Study, Canada 2000, 4'

Programme duration approx 71 min

Tate Modern  Starr Auditorium
£5 (£4 concessions), booking recommended
For tickets book online or call 020 7887 8888.