Science fiction and space might just be favorite themes of video artist Amir George, who will be part of AnySquared’s Cinema Minima programming during the all-volunteer artist collaborative’s residency at The Hairpin Arts Center.
On Nov. 1 at 7 pm, George will host “Interstellar: Outer-Body,” a program presented by the Cinema Culture and described as a celestial experience that explores the transcendence through space and time beyond the cosmos and the psyche.
The program will feature videos and new material from local filmmakers and video artists Jason Ogawa, Floyd Webb and Nelson Carvajal.
“Amir’s screening is part of six weeks of activity at the Hairpin. We have exhibits and a few other events and activities throughout the residency,” AnySquared’s Tracy Kostenbader says.
When the weather is nice on this planet, we like to dust off our bikes, air up the tires and ride around the neighborhood. That’s how LoganSquarist met up with George this past summer, on a mobile artist talk from the California Blue Line stop to and through Humboldt Park.
During this talk, George showed cyclists some of the locations he used to film “How to Make a Hood,” a video installation piece featured in the University of Chicago’s Arts Incubator programming. George started shooting “How to Make a Hood” in June.
He described resident “Hoodonians” as English speakers, but not human. They were all exiled from different planets based on their appearance because people were scared of them. “How to” tells the story of how these “people” move from planet to planet; George used mostly dancers because Hoodonians communicate primarily by movement.
While the hoodies worn were black (as are faces—all you see is hoods), after hours of rendering and color correction, green, blue and orange were added so that the hoods change color during the course of the story.
“When I got the idea, I didn’t know what it’d look like, but I thought it should be outside, so I just started shooting and playing with everything,” George says, adding, “The hood we live in is the whole project. I just went off the title and people’s negative associations with hoodies.”
For the indoor presentation at Hairpin, look for a guy in an astronaut suit; we hear a certain out-of-this-world Chicagoan might be in it.
Cover Photo: Jason Ogawa
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