Critical Moments

Critical Moments

2004 · 1 min

‘Critical Moment One’ was an un-planned recording of a one-year old boy exploring shells and sand on a beach. Though the boy was my own grand-son, it was never seen as a ‘home-movie’ – the child’s face is never seen and it was shot over his shoulder - as close to his ‘point-of-view’ as I could get. As a young man and as my own children grew up, I was greatly intrigued by the book ‘The Construction of Reality in the Child’ by Swiss psychologist, Jean Piaget. Piaget made an exceptionally close observation of the changing stages of behavior of his own children which provided me with a conceptual framework for my own observations.

Directed by Malcolm Le Grice

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Critical Moments

Berlin Horse

Both from Malcolm Le Grice.

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Marking Time

Marking Time · 2015

"3D Video SBS (side by side) format. For viewing on 3D monitor or television" -Le Grice

Berlin Horse

Berlin Horse · 1970

Two fragments of 8mm home-movie footage shot by the artist near Berlin weave together in repeating cycles of action, temporal manipulation, and colour distortion, heightening the viewer’s awareness of film-time and the film-image, and perception of colour in motion.

Matrix

Abstract art film made for gallery exhibition.

Threshold

Threshold · 1972

Le Grice no longer simply uses the printer as a reflexive mechanism, but utilises the possibilities of colour-shift and permutation of imagery as the film progresses from simplicity to complexity… With the film’s culmination in representational, photographic imagery, one would anticipate a culminating “richness” of image; yet the insistent evidence of splice bars and the loop and repetition of the short piece of found footage and the conflicting superimposition of filtered loops all reiterate the work which is necessary to decipher that cinematic image. - Deke Dusinberre

60 Seconds of Solitude in Year Zero

60 Seconds of Solitude in Year Zero · 2011

60 Seconds of Solitude in Year Zero

MovieDramaComedy

An anthology of one-minute films created by 51 international filmmakers on the theme of the death of cinema. Intended as an ode to 35mm, the film was screened one time only on a purpose-built 20x12 meter public cinema screen in the Port of Tallinn, Estonia, on 22 December 2011. A special projector was constructed for the event which allowed the actual filmstrip to be burnt at the same time as the film was shown.

Jonas

An impromptu portrait of Jonas Mekas shot at the Serpentine Gallery, London on the occasion of a celebration of his 90th birthday. All made in a single take whilst Mekas videos Mike Figgis playing Flugel horn and Rosey Chan plays piano.

Where When

Where When · 2015

Malcolm Le Grice - 3D.

Wharf

Originally the work was presented as a pre-ordered sequence of 35mm slides showing two unknown people walking around the wall of a sea-side swimming pool. Switching between positive and negative focus on the mystery of the hidden and unresolved narrative between the ‘lovers?’. On occasions, this work was shown in superimposition with sections of the film Talla. Two sound tapes were mixed in improvisation. A digital video version has been made using the original slide sequence and audio tapes.

Home Movies 1971-81

Home Movies 1971-81 · 1985

Home Movies 1971-81

MovieDocumentary

Home movies shot on Super 8mm by W+B Hein over 10 years.

Finiti

[Originally] six virtual screens matted into three Blu-ray projections. First exhibited at the Centre Multimedia Gantner in 2011, then on an immersive 18 metre curved screen at Tate Britain in 2012. It explores an interplay between abstracted colour, personal imagery and war related newsreel, seeking a coherent set of linking themes. Perhaps an homage to Dziga Vertov. A single screen version was made in 2013 and shown in Millennium, New York and at Tate Britain.

Blackbird Descending - Tense Alignment

Blackbird Descending - Tense Alignment · 1977

Blackbird Descending - Tense Alignment

MovieDocumentary

A brilliantly constructed, melancholic ode to the passing of time by Malcolm Le Grice.

Arbitrary Logic

Arbitrary Logic · 1987

Arbitrary Logic

Arbitrary Logic, an interactive audio-visual synthesiser was first presented under the working title Osnabruk at the Osnabruk festival of 1987 and later as part of an improvised and computer music performance with Keith Rowe at the London Filmmakers Cooperative, December 1989.

China Tea

China Tea · 1965

Shot with two 8mm cameras then projected side by side accompanied by an audio tape of "prepared piano".

Talla

Rocky, granite outcrops, a derelict quarry-worker and Dartmoor prison.

DENISINED - SINEDENIS

DENISINED - SINEDENIS · 2006

DENISINED - SINEDENIS

Music J S Bach digitally reconstructed by Le Grice.

Again Finnegan

Again Finnegan · 2006

Originally shot as part of Finnegan’s Chin, this sequence is re-edited as a portrait of performer Jack Murray. It continues the fascination of the forever repeating folk round “I knew a man called Michael Finnegan....”.

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