Orbiting Bodies

Orbiting Bodies examines affinities shared in the work of SFAI alumni artists spanning the decades. Bodies in orbit can be those of the SFAI community flowing together, the stationary orbit of one’s partner in front of the camera, or a child’s repetitive revolutions around a parent as they both age. Other times these bodies are planetary, keeping ancient celestial time. Threaded through the projector in inventive ways, film can even diverge from its usual path and orbit itself. The work and community of SFAI artists orbit one another across the years. These films investigate our perception of time, sometimes in collaboration with composers of music, another time-based medium. This program, the second screening in a two-part series curated by Steve Anker and Mark Wilson, includes films made between the 1970s and 2000s by alumni and allied institute figures at SFAI or later in their careers.

Part one of this program, Personal Voices, is at 1 p.m.

Films

Retrospectroscope (Kerry Laitala, 1997, 5 min., 16mm)
Redshift (Emily Richardson, 2001, 4 min., 16mm)

The Shadow Line (Toney W. Merritt, 1985, 13.5 min., 16mm on digital video)
The Dark Room (Minyong Jang, 2007, 4 min., 16mm)
Moebius Strip (Luis Recoder, 1997, 13 min., 16mm)

Shape Shift (Scott Stark, 2004, 3 min., digital)

Poet in Orbit (Joel Singer, 1980, 2 min., 16mm on digital video)
Same Stream Twice (Lynne Sachs, 2012, 4 min., 16mm on digital video)

Riverbody (Alice Anne Parker, 1970, 7 min., 16mm)
George (Henry Hills, 1976, 2 min., 16mm)

Celestial (Gregg Biermann, 2018, 9 min., digital, live score by John Davis)

Running time: 66 minutes

Accessibility Information

Accessibility accommodations such as American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation and assisted listening devices are available upon request 10 business days in advance.

Please email publicengagement@sfmoma.org, and we will do our best to fulfill your request.

Meaningful support provided by the Susan Wildberg Morgenstein Memorial Fund.