‘BRUCE McCLURE / PAUL SHARITS’

The performances of Bruce McClure (US) are physical experiences, hallucinatory and immersive, that stretch boundaries while celebrating the movie going experience. Working with 16mm projectors and guitar effect pedals, McClure elaborates powerful pieces that play with light, sound, the space of the performance and the viewer’s perception. “The total effect converts the room into an enormous reverberation chamber for both ear and eye, throbbing with mechanical thunder and lightning” (ArtForum). Preceded by Rapture, a rarely screened work by the late Paul Sharits – and his only one in video: “a pseudo 'rock video' which will never be shown on MTV”, questioning “the border line between the sublime and the repulsive” (Sharits).

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Bruce McClure: "Hat In the Ring is an analogy that reckons the verifiable cinematic confines of a film loop, composed of emulsion and base frames threaded on a 16 mm projector; with the spatial continuum of time. Hat In the Ring utilizes a blinded projector ignoring the main lamp in recognition of offerings of it's second lamp focused in the optical sound system's theater. The dialectic between a staccato reading in the projector's film gate and an unbroken scan by the exciter bulb on the sound platform is interrupted admitting a chorus of guitar effects pedals. Hat In the Ring distinguishes an essential part of the projector and once separated we are required to note truths from other truths making it possible to recognize how those things stand in relation to it. "