Canyon Cinema 50 // February 16th // Changing the Shape of Film: An evening with Barbara Hammer at Exploratorium

Posted January 31st, 2017 in Canyon Cinema 50, Canyon Cinema Salon, Events and Screenings, News / Events

Thursday, February 16th, 2017
7:30pm
Kanbar Forum, Exploratorium – Pier 15, San Francisco
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BH-Balloon_1979_NorthwestArtistAssociation_Portland-Oregon_CheriHeiser_SMJoin us Thursday, February 16th for an evening of transmuted cinema, where images break through the traditional rectangular screen and emerge as unexpected and amorphous shapes. Working since the late 1960s, Barbara Hammer’s career has been marked by experimentation, intellectual rigor, and a commitment to testing boundaries.

Hammer will present two works of expanded cinema that reconsider exactly where film images belong. With Changing the Shape of Film, a 12-foot weather balloon becomes the screen for Hammer’s own films, forcing the audience to find new perspectives, and seating arrangements. In Available Space, a 16mm projector is mobilized and the architecture of the space becomes the screen. In this work, the viewer is also mobilized and forced into continuous physical motion to view it.

Presented in conjunction with Exploratorium, this event is the first Canyon Cinema 50 program in a yearlong series of programming in celebration of the 50th anniversary of Canyon Cinema’s incorporation as a distributor of independent artist-made film. In the tradition of Canyon’s monthly Canyon Cinema Salon series, Hammer’s performances will be followed by an intimate conversation.

Barbara Hammer was born on May 15, 1939, in Hollywood, California. She is a visual artist working primarily in film and video. She has made over 80 moving image works in a career that spans 40 years. She is considered a pioneer of queer cinema and has worked in documentary, experimental cinema, performance, and installation. She has received numerous honors including a Guggenheim Fellowship and retrospectives at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Tate Modern in London, and the Toronto International Film Festival. Her work has shown at countless national and international venues. In addition to her moving image work, she is the author of Hammer! Making Movies Out of Sex and Life. She teaches each summer at The European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland.

Canyon Cinema is thankful for the long term support of the George Lucas Family Foundation. Dedicated project funding for Canyon Cinema 50 has been generously provided by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, Owsley Brown III Foundation, Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation and The Fleishhacker Foundation.