Field Station Hollywood: May 3 - May 29
Primate Cinema Exhibition: June 11 - June 22
Talk and Screening: May 24 at 6pm
Opening Reception: June 14 at 6pm.
Primates and their on-screen dramas are the subject of an exhibition presented at TELIC Arts Exchange by Los Angeles artist Rachel Mayeri.
The exhibition is an installation of several video experiments on the human animal, including “Jane Goodall and the Wild Chimpanzees,” “How to Act like an Animal,” and “Baboons as Friends.”
In the video series “Primate Cinema,” Mayeri transforms TELIC Arts Exchange into an observation platform for viewing the social, sexual and political behavior of human and nonhuman primates.
Mayeri’s work enables viewers to observe human nature at a safe distance through the lenses of primatology and media studies.
Jane Goodall and The Wild Chimpanzees (10 minutes, 2008)
A live performance of a nature documentary, “Jane Goodall and The Wild Chimpanzees” was developed and videotaped during a three week workshop at TELIC in May. The edited video explores what it means to be animal, and how documentary dramatizes nature. The performers are: Suzan Averitt, Claire Cronin, Penny Folger, Estela Garcia, Dave Johnson, Diane Lefer, Adam Overton, and Joe Seeley.
How to Act like an Animal (5 minutes, 2008)
This video is one of several exercises from the “How to Act like an Animal” workshop, which was co-led with primatologist Deborah Forster and physical theatre director Alyssa Ravenwood. Through observation and imitation of a nature documentary, human performers play chimpanzees–hunting, killing, and sharing the meat of a colobus monkey.
Baboons as Friends (6 minutes, 2007)
The first of the “Primate Cinema” series, “Baboons as Friends,” translates a primate social drama for human audiences. A two-channel installation, “Baboons as Friends” juxtaposes field footage of baboons with a reenactment by human actors, shot in film noir style. A tale of lust, jealousy, sex, and violence transpires simultaneously in human and nonhuman worlds. Beastly males, instinctively attracted to a femme fatale, fight to win her, but most are doomed to fail. The story of sexual selection is presented across species, the dark genre of film noir re-mapping the savannah to the urban jungle.
Field Station Hollywood
Primate Research Laboratory and Performance Workshop
Ongoing in May at TELIC Arts Exchange
In May, TELIC Arts Exchange will be a laboratory for primate research and video production, and will be open to visitors. As part of TELIC’s Public School, Mayeri will lead a workshop on “How to Act like an Animal.” The workshop will explore primate social structure, communication, and movement in a series of performative experiments, with contributions by primatologist Deborah Forster. The workshop will form the basis for a video to be shot at TELIC Arts Exchange in May and screened in June as part of Primate Cinema. Participation in the free workshop, offered as part of TELIC’s Public School, is limited to 15 people. To inquire, please follow the link below:
http://thepublicschool.org/105/how-to-act-like-an-animal/
Primate Cinema:
Baboons as Friends
The first of the “Primate Cinema” series, “Baboons as Friends,” translates a primate social drama for human audiences. A two-channel installation, “Baboons as Friends” juxtaposes field footage of baboons with a reenactment by human actors, shot in film noir style. A tale of lust, jealousy, sex, and violence transpires simultaneously in human and nonhuman worlds. Beastly males, instinctively attracted to a femme fatale, fight to win her, but most are doomed to fail. The story of sexual selection is presented across species, the dark genre of film noir re-mapping the savannah to the urban jungle.
“Baboons as Friends” was screened at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denmark and received a Semifinalist honor for an International Visualization Competition sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the Journal Science. It was made in collaboration with