Zoe Beloff works with a variety of cinematic imagery: film, stereoscopic projection performance, interactive media and installation. More and more she finds herself fascinated by phantoms, by images that "are not there". She would like to think of herself as an heir to the 19th century mediums whose materialization séances conjured up unconscious desires, in the most theatrical fashion. Though lacking psychic abilities she confesses relying on cinematic illusionism or one could say the cinematic "medium".
Lost --- Performance for stereo slides, hand-cranked projector and 78 rpm gramaphone records. A document of everyday life on New York's Lower East Side. To paraphrase Walter Benjamin; a spectalbe not of life remembered but of life forgotten. Like dream images these cinematic fragments are hieroglyphic clues to a past illuminated at the very moment of its disappearance.
Shadow Land or Light from The Other Side --- Stereoscopic 16mm B/W Film. Cast Kate Valk, Paul Lazar, Gen Ken Montgomery, Luna Montgomery, Shelley Hirsch. A film based on the 1897 autobiography of Elizabeth d'Espranc, a materializing medium who could produce full body apparitions.
Aki Onda's Invisible Ensemble featuring Miguel Frasconi and Toshio Kajiwara
Music is essentially invisible. But could it be visible as well? Aki Onda's Invisible Ensemble takes you on a journey through imaginary landscapes like Marco Polo describes imaginary cities to Kubla Khan in Italo Calvino's novel, Invisible Cities. Invisible Ensemble's discarded cassette tapes, old forgotten records and glassharp evoke nostalgic memories and create hauntic poetic logic. What you hear is what you see.