[Frameworks] Final Day: Matt Town screening & artist talk Microscope Gallery online

[LBurchill]

Watch here: https://tinyurl.com/y2744wlz
<https://tinyurl.com/y2744wlz?fbclid=IwAR342I-P_Ebou0XFPhN1ctwGgO2lKWKdjoWhGgtQMf7DjYmdLTAUvByrkI8>

Microscope is very pleased to present an online screening of works in film
and video by Matt Town, whose solo exhibition Depressions is currently on
view at the gallery through December 20th (please note the exhibit has been
extended).

The 50-minute program of works — shot on various formats including Super
8mm, 16mm, Hi8 video, cell phone, and HD video — by the artist includes
mostly new works that have just been completed or that have not been shown
before, with the addition of a few earlier works from 2012-13. The program
relates to and expands upon his works presented in the exhibition about gun
culture and the rituals of gun ownership in the US, which are also actual
dialogues with several gun-owning friends and family members. Other works
take the form of portraits of objects, people, places and other subjects as
encountered in the artist’s daily life.

“TUNNEL” (2019) is an uncut shot of Town’s walk through the Burro Schmidt
Tunnel in the Mojave Desert, recorded on 16mm film. It takes the artist
about 9 minutes to wander through the half-mile hole that William “Burro”
Schmidt spent 38 years digging with his own hands. The complete absence of
light disorients the viewer and invites the imagination to picture the man
at work in the tunnel, as well as the drive and effort needed to achieve
his life’s purpose. Town’s “BURRO” (2017) documents Schmidt’s nearby home,
which was equipped to endure violent winds.

The two new video works currently installed in the exhibit are included, as
well: “ROOF” (2020) is a document of a life-long friendship and a critique
of reckless gun ownership while “TRAP” (2019), which features Town and his
father shooting a gun the artist’s sister gave their father as a gift,
questions such traditional bonding rituals. The newly completed “How to
Properly Destroy Firearms” (2020), records the destruction of a friend’s
gun — the same featured in “ROOF” — that was recently fired indoors by
someone who thought the gun was not loaded.

Earlier works in the program include the 16mm film “PROTEST” (2013),
featuring a housing protest that took place in Bushwick, Brooklyn;
“emancipate me” (2013), made with appropriated footage focusing on the use
of baseball bats as weapons in both Hollywood blockbusters and televised
sport; and the Super 8mm film “DENKMAL” (2012), a filmic and spacial
exploration of the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, Germany.
TO WATCH:

A “WATCH NOW” link will appear on this page on Monday December 7th at 7pm
ET. Passes for viewing give full access to the video program and artist
talk.

*General admission $8 (Valid through Thursday December 10, 10:30pm ET)
Member admission $6 (Valid through Thursday December 10, 10:30pm ET)*

Become a Member
<https://fundraising.fracturedatlas.org/microscope-gallery/general_support>

WATCH NOW
<https://microscopegallery.com/matt-town-screening-and-artist-talk-watch/>

_
*Matt Town* (b. 1989, Sarasota, Florida) is a Los Angeles-based artist
working with moving image, photography, painting, installation and
sculpture. His work is primarily concerned with a sense of community and
one’s role within it and has appeared at Night Gallery, LA; The Box, LA;
Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, CA; Centre Pompidou, Paris, France;
Anthology Film Archives, New York; Millennium Film Workshop, New York;
Union Docs, New York; among others. In 2017 he was awarded a year-long
CalArts REEF Residency. Matt Town received a BA in Film & Media Studies
from the University of Florida in 2013 and an MFA in Art from California
Institute of the Arts (CalArts) in 2017.
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