ON VIEW

OBSCURE OBJECT FILMS

PHOTOPLAYS by STEPHEN DIRKES
05 APR - 30 APR 12

OPENING: THU 05 APR 2012, 6:00 - 10:00 pm
OBSCURE OBJECT FILMS RETROSPECTIVE FILM SCREENING
+ VJ set w/ DJ Vandal

RABBITHOLE
33 Washington Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201
Tel. 718 852 1500
rabbitholeprojects.com

Rabbithole Gallery is pleased to present, "Obscure Object Films - Photoplays by Stephen Dirkes", an exhibition of film, photography, sets, props and painting from the short films of Stephen Dirkes. Opening April 5th and extending to the 30th, this will be the third Rabbithole exhibition for this internationally exhibited artist.

The short films of Stephen Dirkes best embody the historical term for film, "Photoplay", as they are composed of thousands of still images to create an animated visual narrative. Working with still photographers, visual artists and designers, Stephen's work combines and crosses the platforms of multiple art forms. Beginning his creative life as a classical composer, Stephen often simultaneously composes the score as he edits his films. Frame by frame and beat by beat, a film evolves as a tightly synchronized expression of both visual and audio rhythms and structures.

The exhibition features several photo prints of Stephen's long term collaborator, photographer Tal Shpantzer, and a painted story board by artist/ film maker Peter Bill. Also featured are installations of set and prop pieces by Amerinkz, Caroline Pham, Ioana Popescu, Zou Chu, Pamela Liou and Jef Niesen.

At 8pm, a 45 minute retrospective of sixteen short films, curated from short films, stop motion animation, fashion films, music video and tests or etudes will be screened. After the screening VJ's will perform live video remixes of the films to DJ Vandal's live set.

OBSCURE OBJECT FILMS RETROSPECTIVE FILM SCREENING:
(Duration: 45 minutes)

"Insect Dreams" 4:46
"Dr. Valentyn Machines a Heart" 2:19
"Ayaka Nishi Collections" 5:10
"CODEX DOLOR, 563 Aspects of Suffering, Episodes 34, 371 & 92 Presented in Part" 2:00
"J'adore PORN" 1:45
"the Initiate" 1:23
"Proteus Syndrome" 2:43
"the Object" 5:18
"Bullet Proof" 1:40
"Deeper" 4:00
"Shoot N Spin" 1:17
"Obscure Object Parts 1 and 2" 5:00
"Obscure Object Part 3" 4:44
"Obscure Object Part 4" 2:49
"Motion Etudes: Flight" 8:40
"Stephen Dirkes - Director Reel" 4:00

obscureobjectfilms.com
see screening trailer

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Currently residing in New York City, Stephen Dirkes, founded and directs Obscure Object Films production company and works as a freelance director, composer and editor.

A devotee of cinema craft and historical avant garde cinema, he has been drawn to explore stop motion and time lapse animation, super 8mm film, stills animation and finding new and interesting ways to incorporate those techniques into the latest in digital film making. As a filmmaker, the rhythm and structure of his picture editing is very closely allied to structures in music and that connection greatly influences his work.

Dirkes studied classical music composition and early music as a teen in Canada at the Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto and continued at the University of Toronto and the University of Michigan, film sound at Simon Frazer University, Vancouver, BC and Indonesian traditional music at STSI Bandung, Indonesia.

Receiving grants and commissions as a composer and film maker from; McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, University of Toronto, Faculty of Music, Canada Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council, Telefilm Canada, Indonesian International “Dharmasiwa” Cultural Scholarship, the Soros Center for Contemporary Arts, Czech Republic and New York State Council on the Arts, Stephen Dirkes work has been widely received and well reviewed.

In 1992 he moved to Seoul, Korea and worked with Young Chang instruments developing Kurzweil sampling synthesizers and embarked on an independent study of Korean traditional musics.

In 1995 he moved to Bandung, Indonesia on a scholarship to study traditional music and established a music production studio. As the music director for Red Rocket Animation, scoring MTV interstitials and short format animation was a great opportunity to work with traditional painted cell animation. Dirkes scored 100′s of television ads, produced music for a few record labels and was able to enjoy extensive study and travel throughout Asia.

In ’97 when the currency and government both collapsed, Stephen moved his studio from Indonesia to Prague, Czech Republic and continued to score film and TV commercials and had the chance to work with Czech animation hero Bedrich Glazer (Jan Svankmajer’s animator) and in historical “Barandov Studios”.

Lots of time spent producing music for several record labels and performing live electronic music (the Lab, aftermath db). He became involved in vjing (VJ Pixalot), new media (Labtest) and taught a course on avant garde cinema and real time performative cinema with Petr Vrana and Standislav Miller in the New Media Department at FAMU (National Film Academy Prague, Czech Republic).

Relocating to the U.S. in 2004, Dirkes founded “Labtest” media art collective to create a VJ performance commissioned for “Hipersonica” international VJ festival in Sao Paulo, Brasil and has continued to vj/dj and exhibit gallery shows, media installations and festival screenings in Berlin, Ghent, Havana, Jakarta, LA, Moscow, New York, Prague, Rio de Janeiro, Rome, Sao Paulo, Seoul and Toronto.

Prior to forming Obscure Object Films in 2009, he was a senior producer/editor for Emmy Award winning production company, Scribemedia.

"Creating film and music continues to hold my interest, gets me creatively charged and lets me learn something new every day." - Stephen Dirkes.