“Erth and Other Landscapes” presents a series of musings on nature, technology, perception, and time by two generations of renowned artists and filmmakers. The program commences with a journey from the origin of the cosmos to the appearance of a “brilliant streptococcus organism for which no antidote exists”; and concludes with a year-long study of a forest, enacted by following the continually shifting movement of colour, light, and shadow across natural forms, articulating then obliterating them into pure abstraction. Between these parentheses, Peter Hutton discovers the sublime landscapes of the Hudson River School in a mound of burning tires; Patrick Keiller recapitulates the natural history of the universe in the capricious ontogeny of his narrator; and, like postmodern Brueghels, Rachel Reupke’s tiny human dramas get lost in the flow of traffic through a panoramic landscape. These closely observed encounters pose questions about our relationship with non-human matter and forces, and draw out some of the complex links between the objective visible world and our inner hidden worlds.

PROGRAM

John Latham, Erth. 1971, Colour, 16mm, sound, 25mins, Great Britain.
Peter Hutton, In Titan's Goblet. 1991, B&W, 16mm, silent, 10mins, USA. 
Patrick Keiller, The Clouds. 1989, B&W, 16mm, sound, 19mins, Great Britain.
Rachel Reupke, Infrastructure. 2002, B&W, video, sound, 14mins, Great Britain.
Nathaniel Dorsky, Compline.2009, Colour, 16mm, silent, 18mins, USA.
Emily Richardson, Aspect. 2004, Colour, 16mm sound, 9mins, Great Britain.