.blacK~SSStaTic_darK~fuZZZ_dOOm~glitCH.

I have brought you here that you might have the best possible view of the scene of that event I mentioned—and to tell you the whole story with the spot just under your eye.
—E.A. Poe, from A Descent into the Maelström

.blacK~SSStaTic_darK~fuZZZ_dOOm~glitCH. is a screening program inspired by storms and digital sorcery or, more pointedly, it is an assemblage of lights and sounds to elicit a chaotic vortex of smudgy black charcoal that is streaked with freezing water, painted on celluloid, stained by sea creatures, hexed through new media, and entranced by guitar riffs. Artists included are Aldo Tambellini, Cultus Sabbati, Gast Bouschet and Nadine Hilbert, jonCates, mojo (for Aluk Todolo), Reto Mäder and Daniel Steffen (for Ural Umbo), Alexander Stewart, and Semiconductor.

.blacK~SSStaTic_darK~fuZZZ_dOOm~glitCH. est un programme de projections inspiré par les tempêtes et la sorcellerie digitale, ou, plus ostensiblement, c'est un assemblage de lumières et de sons qui provoque un vortex chaotique de charbon noir brouillé, strié avec de l'eau glacé, peinturé sur celluloïd, taché par des créatures marines, ensorcelé à travers les nouveaux medias et envouté par des riffs de guitares. Il comprend les artistes Aldo Tambellini, Cultus Sabbati, Gast Bouschet et Nadine Hilbert, jonCates, mojo (pour Aluk Todolo), Reto Mäder and Daniel Steffen (pour Ural Umbo), Alexander Stewart, et Semiconductor.

Programme:
- White God (Gast Bouschet and Nadine Hilbert (in collaboration with Xavier Massaut), 2002-2010, 5:47)
- ERRORRUNNINGWWWATERNOISES (RE:MIXXX for Amelia Ishmael) (jonCates, 2012, 6:44)
- Descent into the Maelstrom (Cultus Sabbati, 2011, 8:12)
- Black is (Aldo Tambellini, 1965, 3:38)
- Unground: Phase 6 (Gast Bouschet and Nadine Hilbert, 2012, 5:37)
- CH405_M4J1K meets GL!TTER GLØØM (jonCates, 2012, 2:16)
- Black Rain (Semiconductor, 2009, 3:02)
- Aluk Todolo live at Cave 12 in Ecuries de l’Ilôt 13, Geneva 12.05.2010 [I] (mojo, 2010), 8:42)
- Black Trip (Aldo Tambellini, 1965, 4:07)
- Errata (Alexander Stewart, 2005, 6:05)
- Ural Umbo - Self Fulfilling Prophecy (Reto Mäder and Daniel Steffen, 2011, 5:14)

Screenings

• January 24, 2013 at Nitehawk Cinema (Brooklyn, NY)
• April 12, 2013 at The Nightingale (Chicago, IL) †
• December 8, 2013 at NES Artist Residency (Skagaströnd, Iceland)
• February 24, 2015 at La Passe (Montreal, Canada) †
• November 5, 2017 at Locatie Z (Den Haag, Netherlands)
† Screening also included Untitled by Sandra Gibson, Luis Recoder, and Olivia Block.

Please contact me if you would be interested in screening the program at your venue.

Screening Review
by Patrick Friel for CINE-FILE

A primary interest of local art curator, writer, and historian Amelia Ishmael is black metal music and the various connections it has, direct and indirect, with other cultural production. This program focuses on some of the indirect connections, and on direct manifestations of black metal rather than its influence. More specifically, as the program title hints at (static, fuzz, glitch), the works have also been selected for their visual textural qualities. A number of dichotomies are set up between and within the films and videos: analog vs. digital; white vs. black; silence vs. sound; natural vs. artificial. The curatorial framework is strong, even if a few of the pieces are not. The majority of the program is solid, however. Aldo Tambellini's two films BLACK IS and BLACK TRIP (both 1965) are part of a stunning larger cycle of films that explore notions of "blackness" is multiple ways. These two films manipulate the film itself in a raw and forceful manner. Local filmmaker Alexander Stewart's 2005 film ERRATA (the only color work in the show) also has a powerfully tactile quality: Stewart constructed the film from over 4000 abstract photocopied images. An excerpt of WHITE GOD, a no-longer-supported online project by Gast Bouschet and Nadine Hilbert (in collaboration with Xavier Massaut) from 2002 forces one to try to find meaning in a jumble of constantly changing and degenerating actual text and garbage "text." A live performance documentation, ALUK TODOLO LIVE AT CAVE 12 IN ECURIES DE L'ILOT 12 GENEVA 12.05.2010 [I], recorded and uploaded to the internet by mojo, a rabid fan of Todolo's, captures the barely visible artist in a murky blackness, illuminated only by a single low-hanging light bulb; the inky surroundings complimenting the darkness of the music. The two works that don't hold their own against the rest of the show are straight-up music videos, which rely on easy and clichéd tropes. Also showing are two glitch works by local artist jonCates, Semiconductor's BLACK RAIN, a portion of Gast Bouschet and Nadine Hilbert's installation work UNGROUND: PHASE 6, and an unpreviewed video by Sandra Gibson and Luis Recoder, with sound by Olivia Block. (1965-2012, approx. 60+ min total, Various Formats)