[Frameworks] Fwd: Barbara Hammer: Women I Love opening Friday, June 24

Thu Aug 11 01:52:50 CDT 2022

I think I am especially well situated to reply to this. I have been 
subjected to my very own apparently unmotivated vicious attack from Mr. 
Cooper on this list. I also am not a big fan of Hammer's work, and have 
been a lifelong advocate for Brakhage's, which might lend a little extra 
credibility to my defense of Hammer.

This kind of unjustified personal attack, with no argument and no 
evidence, is all too common on the Internet today, and is sadly typical 
of Trumpism, not to say, of course, that Mr. Cooper is a Trumper, but 
still. What do we learn from him telling someone to "get a life and get 
a girlfriend" because he posts an enthusiastic review of an art exhibit? 
This is offensive in the extreme. Not everyone wants a girlfriend -- or 
a boyfriend -- and what does this even have to do with anything? The 
usual meaning of this insult is to allege that the person being attacked 
has all kinds of personal problems that would be solved by, well, a 
sexual relationship with a woman. What a load of garbage; what an insult 
to both women and relationships; what a way to evaluate our fellow humans.

To judge by the Hammer images online, they seems to my not very 
favorably disposed eyes to be reasonably good work, at least 
interesting, maybe more. I haven't seen the actual work, so I really 
can't judge it. Has Mr. Cooper?

As for Mr. Cooper referring to Hammer, whose work has garnered much 
attention and praise over many years, as "some dead lesbian," that is 
beyond the pale. Can we all not agree that /no one/ should ever be 
referred to in that way? His larger comment also makes no sense. I don't 
know any evidence that Eric would not praise a Brakhage film called 
"Woman I Love," though that is not a likely Brakhage title; his are 
usually more indirect. It is also not Hammer's title; hers is "Women I 
Love." Is Cooper's changing of the title a key to what so bothered him? 
Personally, I think it's just fine if a woman -- or a man --wishes to 
love, with their consent of course, many women.

Fred Camper
Chicago

On 8/10/2022 7:23 PM, Bruce Cooper wrote:
> What if Brakhage made a film called "Woman I Love" instead of some 
> dead lesbian.  You wouldn't make the same comments Eric. Get a life 
> and get a girlfriend.. I would like to talk to you sometime.
>
>
> On Wed, Aug 10, 2022 at 2:12 PM Eric Theise <erictheise at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>     I hadn't returned to the Bay Area by the time this Barbara Hammer
>     show – photographs mostly, but also films projected digitally –
>     opened but I went a few Saturdays ago and it was a treat. Worth
>     going for the photographs alone but Ratio 3 did the right thing
>     and erected a wall to make their back gallery a good bit more
>     light-tight and the three films projected there look great (the
>     four others are displayed on a pair of wall mounted monitors). One
>     could easily spend an hour or two taking it all in.
>
>     This coming Saturday the 13th is the last day. The gallery's open
>     every day until then from 11a-5p. I took a couple of friends along
>     as a surprise so I RSVPed via Ratio 3's website
>     <https://www.ratio3.org/> and that's probably a good idea.
>
>     In San Francisco's Mission District, across the street from the
>     24th & Mission BART stop.
>
>     & it was news to me that the neighboring gallery, Et Al., has
>     turned one of their spaces into a mostly art-focused bookstore.
>
>     Eric
>
>
>     ---------- Forwarded message ---------
>     From: *Ratio 3* <gallery at ratio3.org>
>     Date: Tue, Jun 21, 2022 at 2:17 PM
>     Subject: Barbara Hammer: Women I Love opening Friday, June 24
>     To: <erictheise at gmail.com>
>
>
>     Barbara Hammer, On the Road, Big Sur, California, 1975
>     /On the Road, Big Sur, California, 1975, /2017. Silver gelatin
>     print, 8 x 12 inches
>
>     *Barbara Hammer : /Women I Love/*
>     June 24 – August 13, 2022
>     Opening: Friday, June 24, 5 – 8pm
>     On view: Wednesday – Saturday, 11am – 5pm and by appointment
>
>     Schedule a visit
>
>     Ratio 3 is pleased to present /Women I Love/, an exhibition of
>     Barbara Hammer’s early photographs and films. The exhibition, like
>     the film after which it is titled, offers an immersive
>     introduction to the distinctive combination of technical
>     experimentation and earnest intimacy that defined Hammer’s
>     singular vision of lesbian identity and authorship in the 1970s.
>     Featuring artworks made while Hammer was living in San Francisco,
>     /Women I Love/ comprises the most extensive presentation of
>     Hammer’s work on the West Coast to date.
>
>     Hammer’s black and white photographs appear throughout the
>     exhibition, beginning with a selection of vintage silver gelatin
>     prints made by Hammer herself, and continuing with a suite of
>     recently editioned photographs printed from Hammer’s archived
>     negatives. From self-portraits to candid shots of women—alone and
>     in groups—in various states of repose and reverie, each photograph
>     provides a glimpse into Hammer’s evolving life and work. Whether
>     unflinchingly erotic or deliberately obscured by lens flares and
>     double-exposures, Hammer’s photographs are invariably generous. In
>     many regards, these stylistically varied photographs of the artist
>     and her friends and lovers mark the beginning of the iconoclastic
>     course Hammer would chart through subsequent decades.
>
>     While the judicious use of optical effects in her photographs
>     attest to Hammer’s embrace of technical experimentation, her
>     inventive command of her media is most apparent in her moving
>     images captured on 16mm film. A monitor in the second gallery
>     presents two of Hammer’s most iconic short films /Dyketactics/ and
>     /Menses/ (both 1974), in a continuous alternating loop.
>     Accompanied by soundtracks of synthesizers and distorted voices,
>     the films present surreal images of uninhibited women congregating
>     in groups, playfully satirizing womanhood and femininity into
>     scenes that are equally touching and absurd.
>
>     Further into the exhibition, another pair of short films,
>     /Multiple Orgasm/ (1976) and /Haircut/ (1978) demonstrate the
>     breadth and continuous growth of Hammer’s filmmaking practice.
>     Despite being made only years apart, these two silent films are
>     strikingly distinct; where one is overtly erotic and composed of
>     densely overlaid color footage, the other documents a quotidian
>     scene in black and white. Together, the films demonstrate Hammer’s
>     consistently inventive approach to experimentation, and the range
>     of visual styles through which she explored and celebrated the
>     nuances of different kinds of intimacy—from the autoerotic to the
>     subtler acts of nurture.
>
>     The final gallery features three longer films, screened
>     successively in an hour-long sequence; /Women I Love/ and
>     /Superdyke/, two of Hammer’s most celebrated films, followed by
>     /Superdyke Meets Madame X/, a collaboration between Hammer and Max
>     Almy. The films and photographs comprising the exhibition
>     highlight Hammer’s singular ability to recognize and capture the
>     nuances of intimacy and sexuality in lesbian relationships and
>     communities. Hammer’s work of the 1970s was pioneering both in its
>     influence on contemporary filmmaking and in its representation of
>     lesbian love and life.
>
>     Barbara Hammer was born in 1939 in Hollywood, CA and died in New
>     York, NY in 2019. Recognized as an influential figure in
>     experimental film, Hammer exhibited extensively throughout her
>     career. Her work has been the subject of film retrospectives at
>     major institutions internationally, including the Museum of Modern
>     Art in New York, the Tate Modern, and the National Gallery of Art
>     in DC.
>
>     This exhibition is accompanied by a brochure with a commissioned
>     essay by Sandra S. Phillips, Curator Emerita of Photography at the
>     San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Ratio 3 thanks the Estate of
>     Barbara Hammer and Company, New York, for their contributions and
>     collaboration in presenting /Women I Love/.
>
>     For all inquiries, please contact: theo at ratio3.org
>
>     	
>
>
>     -- 
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>     Frameworks at film-gallery.org
>     https://mail.film-gallery.org/mailman/listinfo/frameworks_film-gallery.org
>
>
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