Friday, October 14, 8 PM $15 / $10 PD members @ Latvian House, 491 College St.
Story of a Fructiferous Society by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE (In Person)
+ FAMEFAME's Micro Omnibus (1996 - 2005)
A co-presentation with SoundPlay
A longtime denizen of the underground who has never seen the light of day in Toronto [tENT note: I've given many presentations in Toronto so I'm not sure what this is all about!], tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE finally graces us with his presence to present his 246th film, Story of a Fructiferous Society. Through tongue- and eyeball-twisting textual play, tENT continues the long search for an "Adamitic", or original language, traveling from a German protestant language sect through underground comix, Herzog's feral Kasper Hauser, Shatner favorite Esperanto and many routes in between. A constant text crawl provides commentary from Umberto Eco's "The Search for the Perfect Language", emphasizing the pseudokabbalism behind tENT's linguistic experiments.
Moving beyond the roots of a rootless language, the video also serves as a complicated survey of tENT's own twenty-five-year history as an artist, sprocket scientist and concrete essayist. He brings forth excerpts from his first eight books, images from his collection of pop ephemera and documentation from his old Neoist performances in 80s Montreal (videotaped lovingly by one of the many Monty Cantsins). This video serves as a good introduction to the vortex that is the life and work of tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE.
Pleasure Dome is pleased to team up with SoundPlay to bring tENT for a long overdue Toronto appearance. tENT will be on hand to guide us through the maze of language, providing his own performative take on the verbal onslaught of vowels and consonants that form the basis of this "homonymphonemiac's orgy". Within the infuriating, captivating and mesmerizing montage of this video, he gives us twenty-six words for pleasure. It's up to you to decide which one moves you the most.
Opening for tENT at 9pm will be the premiere of FAMEFAME's Micro Omnibus: excerpts from FAMEFAME's video vaults (1996-2005) blended, diced and re-ordered into a cacophonous symphony of synthetic synesthesia. The soundtrack is the image track, the edits are the arrangement in 29.97 fps common time. www.famefame.com
SOUNDplay is a meeting point for experimentation in new media and sound art, an annual festival that pushes the boundaries of these art practices and encourages new fusions of image, sound and text. From September 16 to October 16 it features videomusique, installations, screenings and performances including an 'expanded cinema' performance by the French group Metamkine. Go to www.soundplay.ca for more information and a full schedule of events
to the tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE movie-making "Press: Criticism, Interviews, Reviews" home-page
to the "tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - Sprocket Scientist" home-page
to the "FLICKER" home-page for the alternative cinematic experience
to find out more about why the S.P.C.S.M.E.F. (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Sea Monkeys by Experimental Filmmakers) is so important
for info on tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE's tape/CD publishing label: WIdémoUTH
to see an underdeveloped site re the N.A.A.M.C.P. (National Association for the Advancement of Multi-Colored Peoples)