The Films of James Nares
Friday, March 25 - Thursday, April 21, 2011
As part of our ongoing business writing services Short Attention Span Cinema series, IFC Center presents a selection of short films by James Nares from March 25 through mid-April, playing before our regular features.
A key figure in New York’s post-punk “No Wave” scene that’s profiled in the upcoming documentary BLANK CITY (opening April 6), Nares is an accomplished artist in a variety of media. His experimental films play with form and rhythm, exploring the movement of objects and people in unexpected, lyrical and arresting ways. No less a fan than Jim Jarmusch has called his movies “luminous jewels scattered in the dirt—as varied and striking as his paintings, his photographs, and his train of thought.”
The series includes RAMP (1975) and GAME (1976), two early films from the era documented in BLANK CITY, as well as later work such as HAMMERED (1990), WEATHER BED (1990) and the recent DRIP (2007), an ingeniously edited musical composition in pebbles.
James Nares was born in London in 1953 and has lived in New York since 1974. His paintings, photographs and films have been shown in numerous group and solo exhibitions in museums and galleries around the world. “James Nares: Motion Pictures,” a retrospective of his film and video work, was presented at Anthology Film Archives in 2008.
“Ranging across thirty years, the five movies included in the ‘Short Attention Span’ series are lyrical but heady one-liners. Ramp (1975), Hammered (1975), and Drip (2007) are mini documents of sculptural activity, involving the effects of gravity on weighty objects. Game (1976) is like a stoner’s dream—a fast and furious chess game played with very small indistinguishable rocks—while Weather Bed (1990) depicts what might have happened the night before as a slowly gathering tornado in the sheets.” – Amy Taubin, artforum.com