Selected Films by Meredith Drum and Alison Ward
Meredith Drum presents three low-ball sci-fi video works that form a loose trilogy, “The Tower”, “The Formula” and “The Double”. The narratives combine elements from old stories of conflict between feminine and masculine and interior and exterior loss and fulfillment. All three were filmed in the same feral park and graced by actress Juliana Francis Kelly.
Alison Ward explores the ideas and motivations behind her piece the Beastly Beauty in the form of a performance as slide lecture. She will re-envision her spectacular performance, an on-going farcical battle that most recently occurred on Coney Island’s beach and boardwalk in late August. The Punch and Judy battle between two characters embodying different elements of beauty and the grotesque features elaborate Baroque style costumes, one set adorned with pink ribbons and lace, the other with garbage bags and filth. Each are backed by six cheerleaders in armor, who taunt each other with chants that merge cheerleading rallies with traditional battle cries and King Kong-style beating of the chest. The battle is comical with each side flirting and fighting, hitting and kissing, much like two lovers in a fierce fight. The choreography combines wrestling moves with traditional dance and burlesque to create a spectacle that is simultaneously violent, sexual, and humorous. The idea behind The Beastly Beauty, is an effort to comment through use of physical humor and public performance, on the nature of violence, and to upend notions of traditional roles of the masculine and feminine.
Artist Bios:
Meredith Drum is a cinema artist who makes both experimental fiction and nonfiction as well as more conventional documentary. Her videos have recently shown at the Bronx Museum of the Arts, Galapagos Art Space, Monkey Town, Fales Library and Archive at NYU and been published online on Good Magazine and the New York Times’ T Magazine. Recent honors include a Flaherty Film Seminar fellowship, an Artists-in-the-Marketplace residency and an award from the Experimental Television Center. Also, she was named an “artist to watch” by art critic Ken Johnson in his New York Times review of the AIM 29 show. Of late she has worked with Patrick Bensard, the director of the Cinémathéque de la Danse in Paris, on a portrait of Lucinda Childs and with artist / choreographer Grisha Coleman on a piece about artists and health care for Levering Investments in Creativity (LINC).
Alison Ward is an artist whose work incorporates performance, video and sculptural installation. She focuses on issues of identity interpreted through physical and slapstick humour. Exhibitions include Haven Arts, The Dumbo Arts Center, and the Bronx Museum as well as the CCCB Museum in Spain, RAW Space Gallery in Australia and Castlefield Gallery in England. She has done residencies at Raw Space in Australia, The Artist in the Marketplace Program, and the LMCC studio program. Currently she is an artist partner on board The Waterpod Project in New York City, and is an artist in residence in LMCC’s Swing Space Program.
This event made possible, in part, through funding from:
MediaThe Foundation