Chip Lord, founder of the architecture and media collaborative Ant Farm, is in Eugene for events in conjunction with the exhibition “West of Center: Art and the Counterculture Experiment in America, 1965-1977.”
Lord will showcase his video art as part of Schnitzer Cinema and present an artist talk on the history of Ant Farm.
On Wednesday, April 17, at 7 p.m., “The Video Art of Chip Lord” is featured at Schnitzer Cinema, which starts the multi-day film festival, Cinema Pacific.
As always, Schnitzer Cinema programs are a great deal for cinephiles, providing a movie followed by a live or Skype dialogue with a special guest, and popcorn and soda for all – all free of charge. Schnitzer Cinema programs are a presentation of the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art and Cinema Pacific.
As a founding member of Ant Farm (1968-1978), Chip Lord produced the video art classics “Media Burn” and “The Eternal Frame.” Lord will present and discuss his work, which straddles documentary and experimental genres, often mixing the two, and has been shown widely at film and video festivals and in museums. He will screen the works “Awakening from the 20th Century” (1999, 35 min.), “Une Ville de l’Avenir” (2011, 12 min.) and “In Transit” (2011, 22 min.).
On Thursday, April 18 at 6 p.m., Lord presents “Ant Farm: Then and Now,” presenting recent projects and including an historical introduction to the radical art and architecture group.
Ant Farm, founded in 1968, engaged in fringe research in architecture on two levels – a utopian, image-based practice using media, and a practical, do-it-yourself activity in air-supported structures and nomadic living. Co-sponsored by the Departments of Architecture, Art, and the History of Art and Architecture, the talk is at 100 Willamette Hall, 1371 E. 13th Ave.
From April 19-25, the Bijou Art Cinemas, 492 E. 13th Ave., Eugene, screens the documentary “Space Land and Time Underground Adventures with Ant Farm.” The opening night screening, Friday, April 19 at 7 p.m., will be introduced by filmmaker Elizabeth Federici. This is the first independent video documentary to delve into the work of the renegade 1970s art/architecture collective.
Lord was trained as an architect and is an artist who works with video and photography. He is a professor emeritus in the Film and Digital Media Department at UC-Santa Cruz.
Ant Farm is featured in the exhibition, “West of Center: Art and the Counterculture Experiment in America, 1965-1997,” on view at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art through April 28.
- from UO's Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art