SILENT/SOUND is one of Squeaky Wheel's annual summer events, staged in the Front Yard of the Burchfield Penney Art Center. Local sound artists are invited to create and perform a live soundtrack for a classic silent film. The Vores, one of Buffalo’s first post-punk bands, will provide their sonic interpretation of a suite of silent experimental films produced by Ralph Steiner, Fernand Leger, and Man Ray.
This event is free, and open to the public. Performance begins at sundown.
Mechanical Principles (1930, Ralph Steiner, 9 minutes) Ralph Steiner (February 8, 1899 – July 13, 1986) was an American photographer, pioneer documentarian and a key figure among avant-garde filmmakers in the 1930s. Mechanical Principles is a poetic evocation of geometry captured in the abstract patterns generated by the motion of gears and machinery.
Le Ballett Mécanique (1923-24, Fernand Leger & Dudley Murphy, 19 minutes) Ballet Mécanique is a pulsing, kaleidoscopic film conceived, written, and co-directed by the French artist Fernand Léger (February 4, 1881 – August 17, 1955) in collaboration with the American filmmaker Dudley Murphy (July 10, 1897 – February 22, 1968), with cinematographic input from Man Ray. After fighting at the front in World War I and spending the year of 1917 in a hospital after being gassed, Fernand Léger exclusively concerned himself with the dazzling effects of mechanical technology. The objects photographed by Dudley Murphy are transformed by the camera and by the editing rhythms and juxtapositions.
L'Etoile de Mer (1928, Man Ray, 16 minutes) Man Ray (born Emmanuel Radnitzky, August 27, 1890 – November 18, 1976) was an American modernist artist who spent most of his career in Paris, France. L'Étoile de Mer (English: The Starfish) is a 1928 film based on a script by Robert Desnos and depicts a couple acting through scenes that are shot out of focus, distorted through glass, or reflected by mirrors.
ABOUT THE SOUND ARTISTS:
The Vores are an avant-garage band who first stalked the stages of Buffalo during the late 1970s. The band is made up of original members Biff Henrich on guitar and vocals and Gary Nickard on bass and vocals, who are also visual artists and provide much of the songwriting, along with keyboardist, vocalist, and songwriter Cathy Carfagna, Scott Ryan on guitar and vocals, and Patrick Heyden on drums. Past members have included, David Kulik, David Meinzer, and David A. Moore. The tense dissonance of their music incorporates elements of punk, funk, pop, no wave, and industrial music. During their initial active period only a handful of studio recordings were ever made, even fewer were released to the public.