Programmed by Amy Kazymerchyk
Naomi Uman in attendance
Like a crochet needle swiftly passing through loops of silk and wool, sun-thickened fingers prying at garlic-clove sheaths, or a chorus of wedding songs around a table of varenyky and boiled dumplings, Naomi Uman’s camera lives amongst the people, homes and villages she films.
Setting out to retrace the footsteps of her family’s own immigrant history, Naomi, an American artist who divides her time between Los Angeles and Mexico City, made a reverse journey of her great-grandparent’s emigration from Uman, Ukraine. She bought a house in Legedzine, just outside of Uman, toured films around the country, befriended village babushki, and established an artist residency for cultural exchange.
The films in “Ukrainian Time Machine” evolved out of the tactile and visceral experience of living in Legedzine. Kalendar chronicles her early days of Ukrainian language lessons. Clay is a portrait of a brick factory that sits atop the ruins of the 5000- year-old, clay-based Trypillian civilization.
Unnamed Film contains footage, in chronological order, shot from the time she arrived in Legedzine to the time she left. “Ukrainian Time Machine” is the latest extension of an artistic practice that involves Uman’s prolonged immersion in the world of her subjects; in previous projects, she lived with a diary-farming family in rural Mexico and with a Mexican immigrant family employed in industrial dairy production in California.
Kalendar. 2008, 10mins.
On This Day. 2008, 5mins.
Window. 2008, 3mins.
Coda. 2008, 3mins.
Clay. 2008, 12mins.
Unnamed Film. 2008, 55mins.
You can watch Gabriel Saloman Mindel's YTSSP essay Mystery Ecology here:
You can watch Sam Gould's YTSSP essay Human Masks here:
Robby Herbst presented his YTSSP essay Mediation, Self Marginalization and Post Politics in Protest Media at an offsite event at Studio 1202. You can view this essay here:
Gabriel Saloman & Sam Gould (Red76) and Robby Herbst in person
The YouTube School for Social Politics (YTSSP) invites historians, artists, and theorists to construct passages of historical inquiry through assemblages of YouTube clips. In an increasingly invisible society we are each a consumer, creator, and clearing house for knowledge, just as much as we are receiver, producer, and disposer of material goods. These notions of surplus knowledge play a central role within the YouTube School for Social Politics. Scattered throughout YouTube lie countless personal and collective points of view and scattered historical moments. By arranging segments of documentaries, personal missives, family films, newsreels and music videos, new light is shed on the sociopolitical landscape of history past and history present.
Gabriel Saloman, Mystery Ecology. 2009, 55mins, dv.
Complimentary light food and beverages will be available, but b.y.o.b. is welcome.
Robby Herbst, Mediation, Self Marginalization and Post Politics in Protest Media. 2009, 60mins, dv.
Sade Sade, War Requiem. 2009, 12mins, a/v performance.
Also this evening will be a debut of Sade Sade's YTSSP inspired composition, War Requiem. A meditation on musical and lyrical forms of opposition to War, War Requiem layers video featuring Benjamin Britten, CRASS, John Cage and Arvo Part to create an original sound work which acts both as a study and a response to these artists.
Co-presented with ARTSPEAK and VIVO Media Arts
