Making Strange: Warhol Refracting is a screening programme with film curator Alice Butler. As one of the most recognisable artists of the twentieth century Andy Warhol is a figure whose work, persona and signature appearance feels known on some level by audiences around the world. This film series explores what might be revealed when we look at Warhol at a remove or in refraction; through the work of his friends, the city with whom his identity is so intertwined and through artists making work today whose themes or ideas connect with or expand upon those Warhol was inspired by.
Join us to view and discuss New York Our Time (79 minutes) by filmmaker Vivienne Dick, with film curator Alice Butler. Vivienne will be joining Alice for a post-screening Q+A.
Filmmaker Vivienne Dick’s film is an intimate and philosophic documentary that contrasts the concerns of present day living in New York with the bohemian wildness of the city in the late 70’s, reflected through the lives of artists, musicians and friends of the filmmaker. To a pulsing soundtrack, the film combines never before seen Super 8 footage from the 70s while the filmmaker was living in the East Village, with intimate conversations with old friends filmed during the hot summer of 2019 in New York. Stories of the past recall a run down, bankrupt, often dangerous city, where rent was cheap and artistic creativity flourished. While in the NYC of today, glittering mirrored towers reflect a city radically consumed by mass gentrification, tourism, and high end luxury gift shops for the one percent.
Beautifully filmed by renowned cinematographer Declan Quinn, and edited by Connie Farrell, the film is an ethnographic look from the inside at a particular community and period in the history of a great city, and a meditation on the passing of time. Interviews include photographer Nan Goldin, performer Lydia Lunch, post-punk feminists Bush Tetras, and a new generation, the children of that 70s era of free expression, now finding their own way through a city increasingly in thrall to market forces over that which makes us human.
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Free, booking essential via Eventbrite.
Vivienne Dick is an Irish filmmaker whose work has been screened widely in Ireland and at many international museums and festivals. Her early work is associated with the No Wave film and music movement of late seventies New York. Her films are multilayered, with an interest in gender politics, music, philosophy and ecology. Her most recent feature documentary was New York Our Time (2020). A retrospective of her work was shown at Jeu de Paume, Paris in 2021. Her work is held in many collections and is distributed by LUX UK.
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Image -Robin Giordani in New York Our Time, Vivienne Dick
