Martha Colburn & the Musicians, LIVE! | "New York Close Up" | Art21

How does an artist transform a solitary practice into a communal experience? In this film, artist Martha Colburn leads a group of musicians in a series of live performances to her animated films at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens. The raucous energy of the musical accompaniment to Colburn's work—itself intensely kinetic and colorful, often depicting historically-inspired scenes of aggression and violence—belies the time-consuming and meticulous process by which the artist creates her stop-motion films. The night's musical performances range in origin from fully composed scores to improvised jams, with the instrumentation matching the narrative highs and lows of each film. Colburn herself performs with multiple projections of hand-painted and found footage, manipulating the images by fanning colored gels, refracting light through lenses, and physically moving the projectors. Featuring the films "Destiny Manifesto" (2006), "Myth Labs" (2008), and "Triumph of the Wild II" (2008-2009); with performances by Tom Carter (guitar), Michael Evans (foley sound & percussion), Jonathan Keay (upright bass), Matthew Marinelli (electronics), Thollem McDonas (piano), Marc Orleans (pedal steel), Laura Ortman (fiddle), and Greg Saunier (drums).

Martha Colburn (b. 1971, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, USA) lives and works in Queens, New York and Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

CREDITS | "New York Close Up" Created & Produced by: Wesley Miller & Nick Ravich. Editor: Mary Ann Toman. Cinematography: Don Edler & Michael Tyburski. Sound: Nick Ravich. Associate Producer: Ian Forster. Production Assistant: Paulina V. Ahlstrom, Don Edler & Maren Miller. Design: Open. Artwork: Martha Colburn. Music: Tom Carter, Michael Evans, Jonathan Keay, Matthew Marinelli, Thollem McDonas, Marc Orleans, Laura Ortman & Greg Saunier. Thanks: Jason Eppink, Carl Goodman, Tomoko Kawamoto, Lumber Rob, Museum of the Moving Image & Matthew Varvil. An Art21 Workshop Production. © Art21, Inc. 2011. All rights reserved.

"New York Close Up" is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Additional support provided by The 1896 Studios & Stages.

For more info: http://www.art21.org/newyorkcloseup

THOLLAM MCDONAS: Oh man!

(LAUGHTER)

MATTHEW MARINELLI: This is going to be a great shot when the doors close.

MARTHA COLBURN: Ahhhhh!

MARTHA: God!

Yes, this is the set list for tonight.

Which I very tentatively edited my program to and hope nothing changes.

We’re going to start our live show. I’m Martha Colburn, these are musicians.

(APPLAUSE)

♪

Well, with animating you end up having to spend a lot of time at home.

Like and when I say a lot, you know maybe you’ll go out once a month.

♪

Tonight, this is basically the live manifestation of everything, it’s not just my work.

It’s the work of the musicians who...who do the soundtracks regularly for the really concrete films I make.

♪

Animated stuff takes me a year. They make the sound.

But this is an opportunity for us to be alive.

♪

So some are completely improvised and some are compositions they wrote and some are not.

And...and we just kind of will make it work, I hope.

♪

You know it’s kind of chance. It’s freedom.

I mean I have to give the freedom...have to give the musicians freedom if I’m not giving them a million dollars too, I mean let’s face it.

You have to be able to have fun.

♪

(APPLAUSE)

I uh, make these paddles which go in front of the projector so....

And I can go red and green on either projector or...

Some are just kind of...flashy and garish for no reason.

♪

It’s just fun...fun, flamboyant, fun stuff.

Just improvisational stuff outside of animating which is so oppressive.

And this is very freestyle. Voila!

♪