The History of sCreening & Fourth Wall
In 2007, as an extension of their artistic practice, former Vox Populi members Nadia Hironaka and Matthew Suib founded Screening (www.screeningvideo.org). Philadelphia’s first gallery dedicated to the presentation of innovative and challenging works on video and film, Screening was a project devoted to expanding access to these media and exploring the influence of moving image culture on our understanding and experience of the world. Screening’s program has included solo exhibitions of work by Johan Grimonprez, Takeshi Murata, Adam Putnam, Mark Lewis, Kelly Richardson, Mungo Thomson, Lars Laumann and others.
In Fall of 2010, Screening was formally absorbed into Vox Populi as Fourth Wall, a dedicated video space that was a part of the organization. Fourth Wall at Vox Populi presented new works chosen by a group of professionals from various locations and backgrounds. Formally run by a formal committee within Vox Populi, the broader Vox membership would nominate artists, film professionals, curators and writers who would take turns programming the space typically for three or four months at a time (with programs changing monthly). For special occasions it was programmed by members, used as part of the annual juried exhibition, or integrated into special gallery wide exhibition initiatives undertaken by the organization.
In early 2016, Vox Populi renovated its space and moved the office within the former Fourth Wall/Screening gallery, opening up a more flexible open plan lobby space for events, receptions, and performances. This renovation also included making the former AUX space architecturally integrated into the broader white box gallery space. Vox’s screening program is ongoing and the Vox Populi Blackbox gallery (formerly known as AUX) is now home to a curated video program during regular gallery hours and a dynamic live arts program after hours. The final series within Fourth Wall was Video Snack 5 which was selected from an international open call and included a four pronged program: a series of short works for one month, longer works for the subsequent month, a feature film, and “screen savers” on monitors installed within the space featuring animated GIFs or repetitive video loops.
Select former Curators
Jesse Pires is curator of film and music programming at International House Philadelphia. He received his Bachelor’s degree in American Studies at Temple University. In 1996 Pires relocated to New York to work in film exhibition, serving as a marketing assistant. In 1999, he became a sales associate at Water Bearer Films and later joined The Napoleon Group as an artist’s representative and in-house producer. In 2003, Pires returned to Philadelphia to join International House. In 2006, he collaborated with the Institute of Contemporary Art to present a rare performance of art-rock pioneers The Red Krayola in conjunction with the exhibit “Make Your Own Life: Artists in and Out of Cologne.” He has curated numerous film screenings at International House, including films by George and Mike Kuchar (2006), Alain Robbe-Grillet (2008) and Frank & Eleanor Perry (2009). He is currently working with Boston-based curator William Kaizen on the PEI funded program Pop Cinema.
Tom Sherman is an artist and writer who splits his time between Syracuse, New York and the South Shore of Nova Scotia. Sherman’s curatorial work focuses on electronic media and network phenomena. In 1986 he was an international Commissioner for the Art, Technology and Informatics section of the Venice Biennale. Since 1999 he has curated the annual Video Now! shows at the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse. As an artist Sherman represented Canada at the Venice Biennale in 1980. His video art is in the collections of many museums, including the Museum of Modern Art, the National Gallery of Canada and the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. His publications include Before and After the I-Bomb: An Artist in the Information Environment (Banff Centre Press, Alberta, 2002) and most recently, Video is a Perceptual Prosthetic (Centre for Art Tapes, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 2012). Sherman is a Professor of Art Video in the Department of Transmedia at Syracuse University.
Daniel Fuller is the Director of the Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art and is the co-Director of Publication Studio Portland (other). Fuller came to Maine from the Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative, a program of The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, where he worked as the Senior Program Specialist. Previously, he was the Assistant Curator and Curator of New Media at the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art in Peekskill, New York. Fuller holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Painting from Towson University and a Master’s Degree in museum studies from Syracuse University. He has contributed writing to Art in America, Art:21, Afterall, ArtAsiaPacific, and Art on Paper.
DiscordiaFilms is Anabel Vázquez, Ivanna Bergese & Liz Munsell – a curatorial collective dedicated to the exchange and promotion of experimental video art made in the Americas. Since 2009 DiscordiaFilms has presented the work of over 50 artists, staging 11 screenings and video-installations in multiple cities throughout Argentina, Chile, and the U.S. East Coast. // DiscordiaFilms es Anabel Vázquez, Ivanna Bergese y Liz Munsell – un colectivo curatorial dedicado al intercambio y promoción de video arte experimental hecho en las Américas. Desde el 2009 DiscordiaFilms ha presentado las obras de más que 50 artists, armando 11 muestras y video-instalaciones en varias ciudades de Argentina, Chile, y la costa este de Estado Unidos.
Michael Connor is a New York-based writer and curator with a focus on cinema and media art. His past projects as curator include: ‘Screen Worlds’, a permanent exhibition at ACMI in Melbourne, Australia; ‘Essential Cinema’, the opening exhibition at the Toronto Film Festival’s new venue; ‘The New Normal,’ a touring exhibition of artworks that used private information as raw material and subject matter. Michael Connor previously worked as a curator at FACT, Liverpool and Head of Exhibitions at BFI Southbank in London. While at the BFI, he developed an interactive moving image archive designed by Adjaye Associates as well as a gallery dedicated to artists’ film, video, and new media. From 2002 to 2005, Connor worked as a curator at FACT in Liverpool.
Jasmin Tsou is a curator based in New York. Recent exhibitions include Superficial at Cleopatra’s, Brooklyn and co-curating The Medicine Bag with Ellen Langan at Maccarone Gallery. She also runs the project space JTT in New York.
Cecilia Dougherty is an artist and writer who works in video, photography, and web applications. Areas of interest include women’s rights, feminist theory, woman’s place in the new global (dis)order, queer identities and queer, psychology and sexualities, everyday life, and new media. She has had numerous shows, screenings and retrospectives. Work has been written about and cited in books including Lesbian Art in America by Harmony Hammond, Chick Flicks by B. Ruby Rich, and Time Binds: Queer Temporalities, and Queer Histories by Elizabeth Freeman (forthcoming 2010). She has published essays, reviews, artist’s pages, poetry and fiction in anthologies and journals including A History of the Avant Garde Moving Image in the San Francisco Bay Area (forthcoming 2010), [From Site to Vision] the Woman’s Building in Contemporary Culture The [e]Book, Felix XXX, Nest, Millienium Film Journal, Afterimage, Swingset, Film Comment, Artbyte, New Art Examiner, Blocnotes, and Framework. She is currently Core Faculty at the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts, Bard College, Film/Video Co-Chair, 2000 to 2004; an Artist-Teacher at the Vermont College of Fine Arts; Visiting Artist at The Cooper Union, New York; and faculty at the International Center of Photography, New York. She lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
Jesse Aron Green was born in 1979 in Boston, MA. He received his MFA from UCLA and his BA from Harvard University. His recent exhibitions include a project in the Oil Tanks at Tate Modern and the 2010 Whitney Biennial. He is the Arthur Leavitt Fellow at Williams College for 2010/2011.
Kevin McGarry is a writer and curator based in Los Angeles. His journalism has recently appeared on Rhizome, T Magazine Blog and the online editions of Art in America, Artforum and Interview. He is a director and programmer of Migrating Forms, a festival of new experimental film and video held at Anthology Film Archives in New York.
Elisabeth Subrin‘s conceptual films and videos explore relationships between history and subjectivity, and the nature of evidence. Working across narrative, documentary and conceptual art practices, she also explores questions about the nature and meaning of mental illness, the legacy of feminism and the impact of recent social history.Subrin’s award-winning work has screened widely in the US and abroad, including solo shows at The Museum of Modern Art, Thread Waxing Space, The Vienna International Film Festival, The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Harvard Film Archives, The San Francisco Cinematheque, Sue Scott Gallery, and in group shows, festivals and museums internationally, including The Whitney Biennial, The Guggenheim Museum, The Walker Art Center, The Wexner Center for the Arts, The New York Film Festival, and The Rotterdam International Film Festival. She has received grants and fellowships from the Rockefeller, Guggenheim, Annenberg, and The Creative Capital Foundations, and participated in the Sundance Institute Screenwriting and Directing Fellowships with her first feature-length narrative film, in development with Forensic Films in New York. She has received film commissions from The MacDowell Colony and The Danish Arts Council for recent projects, The Caretakers and Sweet Ruin. A solo exhibition curated by Lia Gangitano will take place at PARTICIPANT, INC. in New York in 2011. Subrin was born in Boston and received a BFA from Massachusetts College of Art in 1990. She received an MFA from The School of the Art Institute in 1995. She has taught extensively, including at Amherst College, Cooper Union, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, The Visual and Environmental Studies Department at Harvard University, and The Yale University School of Art. She is currently Assistant Professor of Film and Media Art at Temple University and lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Lise Haller Baggesen left her native Denmark in 1992 to study painting at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. In 2008 she relocated to Chicago with her family, where she completed her MA in Visual and Critical Studies at the School of the art Institute in 2013, for which she received a fellowship award.In the meantime, her work evolved from a traditional painting practice toward a hybrid practice including curating, writing and immersive multimedia installation work.Her work has been shown in galleries and museums in Europe and outside, including w139 in Amsterdam, Overgaden in Copenhagen, the Municipial Museum in the Hague, MoMu in Antwerp, the Wurttembergischem Kunstverein in Stuttgart and CAEC, the Chinese European Art Center in Xiamen, The Poor Farm in Manawa, WI and 6018 North and MCA in Chicago, IL.
Mike Bullock and Linda Aubry Bullock – Mike is a composer, electroacoustic musician, and media artist based in Philadelphia, PA. His work has been presented across the US and in Europe, solo and in collaboration with a huge range of artists including Bertrand Gauguet, Andy Guhl, Mazen Kerbaj, Pauline Oliveros, Bhob Rainey, Steve Roden, Keith Rowe, and Christian Wolff. He holds a PhD from the Arts Department at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY, and has taught and lectured in the US and Europe on field recording and improvisation. Collaborating with Linda Aubry Bullock, they perform together as rise set twilight and co-run the art-edition label Shadowselves. Linda founded Aubry Arts, creating handmade porcelain tableware, decorative accessories, and experimental works combining porcelain with other medium. She also creates stop motion animation, video collages, and sound art as Orangecookie. Linda studied music composition at Berklee College of Music (MA) and Bennington College (MFA).
Eduardo Thomas is a researched-based visual artist and film curator. He is most interested in the many ways that our reality can be constructed/explained/experienced through the use of cinematic practices. He is a founding member of SOMA (MX) and has collaborated as film curator in establishing exhibition and discursive platforms such as Ambulante film festival (MX) and the Berlin Documentary Forum (DE). In 2013 he was awarded a research grant by The Japan Foundation to inquire into the relationship between the Shinto-Buddhist concept of ‘ma’ and experimental film practices in Japan. In recent years he has been involved in exhibition projects for International House Philadelphia and Pacific Standard Time LA/LA.