Bio:
I am fascinated by the technology of the nineteenth century, the birth of
film and its inextricable link to the Victorian sensibility. The hallmark
of this aesthetic lies in its tightly-laced obsession with detail
and decoration, decorum and charm. All objects, from a memory quilt to a
camera, were compulsively lavished with the same ornamental decorations.
While on one level my modernity is repelled by this fussiness, on another
level I feel oddly liberated by this outrageously sensual adornment of
objects, regardless of their function.
Yet the Victorian fixation on complicated patterning belies a fear of the
empty space. I feel there is, within their flourishes, a language I
must decipher. To get close enough, to get inside the design is to see
patterns of desire, patterns of repression, a pattern that blossoms to
encompass generations. As Louise Bourgeois once said, '...The making of
art is an insight into the source of compulsion....Art is the privilege
of insight into craving.'
The processes I am drawn to require much tedious, repetitive labor.
Although I work with sophisticated technology, I see my work in the
tradition of women's lap craft. I find the time spent obsessively
performing these mundane tasks is essential, for it is during this time
that I develop an intimate understanding of the imagery I create. I hand
paint one frame at a time; I move images, pixel by pixel; I shoot film
frame by frame. With my attention focused on the miniature, each frame is
a separate entity, an entire world. My fascination with the handmade,
the awkward and sentimental is at odds with the contemporary medium within which I work. The dynamic play between practical technology and
rhapsodic subject matter is the motivation that propels my work forward.
About the Artist
Sheri Wills is an experimental filmmaker and computer artist, currently
an Associate Professor of Art at the University of Rhode Island. She holds an MFA in filmmaking and an MA in Modern Art History, Theory and Criticism from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work has screened around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Regus London Film Festival and the International Film Festival in Rotterdam. She has written art criticism for magazines such as the New
Art Examiner, and recently curated a program of films alled "Synesthesia:
The Musical Form in Contemporary Avant-Garde Film." www.redvelvetcake.net
Filmography/Awards Info:
Elegeia, Super8, 1.5 minutes, 24 fps, silent, color, 2002
Anodyne, 16mm film, 4 minutes 2001
Screenings: The 45th Regus London Film Festival, London, England; 2002 Ann
Arbor Film Festival, Ann Arbor, MI; 2nd Telluride International
Experimental Film Exposition; Collectif Jeune Cinéma - Festival des
Cinémas Différents de Paris
Acetylene specimens 28 to 52, 16mm film, 4 minutes 2001
Screening: 2nd Telluride International Experimental Film Exposition
Fever specimens 17 to 34, super 8 film, 4 minutes 2001
Screenings: Museum of Modern Art, "Big as Life: American History of Super8
Film" final program; 2001 Small Windows 8mm Film Festival, San Francisco,
CA; Photoautotroph, ATA, San Francisco; Nightown Theater "Cameraless
Films" Rotterdam, Netherlands
Palliation 16mm film, 1.5 minutes, 2001
Providence Women¹s Film Festival 2001
Effigy - specimens 4 to 12, digital video, 3 minutes, 2000
Screenings: 2001 The Rotterdam International Film Festival, Rotterdam,
The Netherlands; Impakt Festival - Utrecht, The Netherlands;
Independent Exposure, Springfield OH; The Paris/Berlin Meetings -Paris,
France and Berlin, Germany; McMurdo Station, Antarctica; Independent
Exposure Sizzling Summer Edition - Seattle, WA; 2001 The Atlanta Film &
Video Festival - Atlanta, GA; 2001 Millennium Scientific Film Festival
- Hungary; Het wilde Weten, Rotterdam, Netherlands; Zero Room, Monterrey
Mexico; Independent Exposure Valentine1s Edition - Seattle WA;
Fountainhead Lounge, Atlanta, GA; El infinito - Monterray, Mexico;
Millennium Film Workshop - New York City; Independent Exposure Summer 2000
Nocturne Nos. 1 & 2, 16mm film, 10 minutes, 1999
Screenings: 2000 Rotterdam International Film Festival - Rotterdam,
The Netherlands; Not Still Art Festival - Boston, MA; American
Synesthesia Association Conference - Princeton University; Paris/Berlin
Meetings - Paris, France; Kiev International Media Arts Festival -
Kiev, Ukraine; International Days & Nights of Animation - Cologne, Germany
; St. Balbach Art Production - Vienna, Austria ; Telluride Experimental
Film Festival - Telluride, Colorado; Center for Contemporary Art -
Warsaw, Poland; Mulitmediale Festival - Prague, Czech Republic; CRASH
Festival of Independent Film & Video - Mexico City, Mexico; Wollogong
Fringe Festival - Wollongong, Australia; Dreamcatcher Film Festival -
Kiev, Ukraine; Rhode Island School of Design - Providence, RI; Rhode
Island College - Providence, RI; Tiverton Four-Corners Arts Center -
Tiverton, Rhode Island; 24th Chinesgut Film & Video Festival - University
of South Florida; Commencement Art Gallery - Tacoma, Washington;
Global Multimedia Interface, Leicester Square, London; Bangkok
Experimental Film Festival, Thailand; IV Independent Film Festival of
Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain; The Club, Dublin, Ireland; French
Balto-Nordic Film Festival, Tallinn, Estonia; Santiago International
Festival of New Film, Santiago, Chile; Les Soirees Cafe Video, La
Garsouille, Caen (Basse Normandy), France; Hummadruz Audiovisual Festival
in Japan Shizuoka City; Hamamatsu City; Mishima City; Kakegawa City, Japan
; The Ann Arbor Film Festival, Ann Arbor, Michigan; The Daydream
Theater, Washington, DC.
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