Howie CHERMAN : Formal Engagement | Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin/Madrid |

CATALOGUE 2002-2003

(c) photo: Howie Cherman

Cette œuvre se composait à l'origine de deux éléments. Une bande-annonce et quatre spots télévisés pour un film appelé "Formal Engagement" sont projetés sur un grand écran de rétroprojecteur. Une image-dans-l'image, incrustée et plus petite, présente ledit film de onze minutes, dans lequel un individu évolue dans une galerie: avançant en ligne droite, avec raideur et circonspection, il examine les éléments qui l'entourent, effectue quelques subtiles transformations, puis repart.

Ursprünglich umfasste dieses Stück zwei Elemente. Auf den Hauptschirm eines großen Fernsehprojektors werden ein Vorspann und vier Fernsehspots für ein "Formal Engagement" betiteltes Feature projiziert. Ein kleines Bild-im-Bild-Fenster spielt das 11-Minuten-Dokument einer Person, die sich in linearer, förmlicher, vorgegebener Weise durch einen Galerieraum bewegt und sich dabei mit den Raumelementen, die sie umgeben, indem sie subtile Transformationen vollziehen, befasst.

There were originally two elements to this piece. On the main screen of a large projection TV are a trailer and 4 TV spots for a 'feature'titled "Formal Engagement." On the small picture-in-picture window played the 11 minute feature, which is of a person moving through a gallery space in a linear, formal, considered way, engaging with the integral elements of the space, executing some subtle transformations, then departing.

___ Note biographique

Howie Cherman est titulaire d'une licence de cinéma de l'université de Californie (Long Beach) et d'une maîtrise en "nouveaux genres" du San Francisco Art Institute. C'est là qu'ont commencé ses nombreuses recherches conceptuelles en vidéo, performance et installation. Il prend part à des expositions nationales et internationales, à des festivals de cinéma et de vidéo et expose également dans des espaces alternatifs. Il vit et travaille à Los Angeles, où a récemment eu lieu son exposition personnelle "Wall to wall" à la galerie South La Brea. Dernièrement, il a également participé au festival arts et médias "LA Freewaves - TV or not TV", à Los Angeles. Ses pièces vidéo sont archivées et distribuées par Video Pool à Winnipeg, au Canada.

Howie Cherman erhielt sein künstlerisches Diplom für Film an der California State University und den Master für Neue Medien am San Francisco Art Istitute. Hier war es auch, wo er sein Werk konzeptuell basierter Videos, von Aufführungen und Installationen zu entwickeln begann. Er stellt national und international in Galerien, bei Film- und Videofestivals ebenso wie in alternativen Räumen aus. Er arbeitet und lebt in Los Angeles, wo er kürzlich die Solo-Show "Wall to Wall" in der South La Brea Gallery gab.

Howie Cherman received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Film from California State University at Long Beach, and a Master of Fine Arts degree in New Genres from San Francisco Art Institute. It was there that he began to develop a large body of conceptually based videos, performances, and installations. He shows nationally and internationally in gallery exhibitions, film and video festivals as well as alternative spaces. He works and lives in Los Angeles where he recently had a solo show, "wall to wall," at South La Brea Gallery. He also recently participated in LA Freewave's annual Media Arts Festival "TV or Not TV" in Los Angeles. His single channel videotapes are archived and distributed by Video Pool in Winnipeg, Canada.

___ Expositions individuelles / Solo exhibitions

2002
- "Wall to Wall," South La Brea Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2001
- "Everything In Between," Southern Exposure, San Francisco, CA
1999
- "Conundrum," The LAB, San Francisco, CA
1998
- "Site Specific, " Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1997
- "Climbing the Walls," Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco, CA

___ Expositions et performances (sélection) / selected group exhibitions and performances

2002
- "Big Deal," Visual Aid, SOMAR Gallery, San Francisco, CA
- "Remember When" New Langton Arts, San Francisco, CA
- "TV or Not TV," L.A. Freewaves, Los Angeles, CA
- "Postcards from the Edge," Visual AIDS, Sperone Westwater Gallery, NY, NY
- "cinemania(c)," Multimedia Center Luka Gallery, Pula, Croatia
- "Post -Postcard 6," Southern Exposure, San Francisco, CA
2001
- Staff Exhibition, Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
- "Synethesia," Southern Exposure, San Francisco, CA
2000
- "Blueprint," TILT at Southern Exposure, San Francisco, CA
- "Mystery Ball," Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, CA
- "SisterSpace Project," Intersection for the Arts with Southern
- Exposure, San Francisco, CA
- "Circus SoEx," Southern Exposure, San Francisco, CA
- "control freaks," 350 space, San Francisco, CA San Francisco Art Institute Action, Walter/McBean Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1999
- "You Are Here," Phyllis Wattis Theatre, SFMOMA, San Francisco, CA
- "The Flexible Density of Time," four walls projects, SanFrancisco, CA
- "ArtCouncil Award Winners," Jernigan Wicker Fine Arts, San Francisco, CA
- "SQUASH," Victoria Arena, Gothenburg, Sweden
- "I Me Mine," The Luckman Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
- "ReAction: An Evening of Conceptual Performance," The LAB, San Francisco, CA
- "Vista Point," gallery3, San Francisco, CA
- "March First, An Evening of Performances," Curated by Robert Linder, 21st Amendment, San Francisco, CA
- "25/25," Southern Exposure, San Francisco, CA
1998
- "Short Attention Span," The Knitting Factory, New York, NY
- Pacific Film Archives, Berkeley, CA, 911 Media Center, Seattle, WA,Castro Theater, San Francisco, CA
- "Emerging San Francisco Video & Filmmakers," The Collective Unconscious, New York, NY and Filmmakers Coop, Vienna, Austria
- "Windows," SFAI Graduate Show, Fort Mason, San Francisco, CA
- "America's (Not Funny) Videos," Curated by Tony Labat, Artists's Television Access, San Francisco, CA
- "Journeymen," San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
1997
- "stomach heart throat," What Is Art?, Santa Cruz, CA
- "Short Attention Span," The Knitting Factory, New York, NY
- Pacific Film Archives, Berkeley, CA, Victoria Theater, San Francisco, CA
- "Electronic Guise," Bay Area Video Coalition, San Francisco, CA
- "Alternative Requirements," Pacific Film Archives, Berkeley, CA
- "Mirror Mirror", Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1996
- "Friends," event gallery, San Francisco, CA
- "Mobile TV," Contemporary Art Fair, Hotel Triton, San Francisco, CA
- "Casting On the Couch," The Casting Couch, San Francisco, CA
- "Alternative Requirements," Pacific Film Archives, Berkeley, CA
- "Proof," Collision, San Francisco, CA
- "Hell Yes! Hell No! ," SOMAR Gallery, San Francisco, CA

___ Bibliographie / Bibliography

Bencic, Branka, cinemania(c) Exhibition Catalog and CD-rom, Pula,
Croatia, 2002
Churner, Rachel, "Everything in its Place," SFStation, April 2001, The
Arts page feature.
Lawson, Stephen, Poolside, Video Pool Catalog, Winnipeg, Manitoba,
Canada, 2000
Marquez, Jose, "Room With A View," SF Weekly, May 2000, page 67.
Miller, Alicia. "'The Flexible Density of Time' at Four Walls
Projects," Artweek, November 1999, page 16.
Ruttenberg, Danya. "Naming Names," Metropolitan Magazine, March 29,
1999, page 20.
Bonetti, David. "Saluting Two Generations of Artists," SF Examiner,
February 19, 1999, pages D-1 and D-10.
Lewallen, Constance. 25/25 Catalog, Southern Exposure, San Francisco,
California, 1999.
Quill, Patricia. Graduate Exhibition Catalog. San Francisco Art
Institute, 1998.

___ note d'intention

La bande-annonce et les spots télévisés faisant la promotion du film constituent un commentaire sur, entre autres, la "spectacularisation" du banal. Ils utilisent le langage des films promotionnels pour critiquer ses propres outils. Le film qui se déroule dans l'image incrustée, en bas à gauche, permet de retourner la relation entre le film calme, lent, sans éclat et les spots promotionnels grandiloquents et spectaculaires. Dans le paysage médiatique, la promotion tend à prendre le dessus sur l'événement (le film) qui est vanté et à devenir dominante.

The trailer and TV spots which 'advertise' the feature are a commentary on, among other things, the spectacularization of the mundane and are utilizing film promotional language to critique its own apparatus. The idea of the feature playing in the picture-in-picture window in the lower left hand corner inverts the relationship between the quiet, slow, mundane feature, and the bombastic, spectacularized promotional spots. The advertising becomes more important, more dominant, in the mediated landscape then the event (film) they promote.