Where is the Black Beast?

On Tuesday, December 6th at 6pm, the Clocktower Gallery screened Where is the Black Beast? by Simon Lee and Algis Kizys.

Where is the Black Beast? is director Lee’s film interpretation of Crow: From the Life and Songs of the Crow by poet Ted Hughes. The 35-minute piece, made by editing hundreds of found amateur snapshots into a cinematic stream, is set to an original score by composer Kizys (bassist from Swans!) along with new readings of Hughes’ monumental cycle of poems.

Where is the Black Beast? is a film interpretation of Crow: From the Life and Songs of the Crow by Ted Hughes. The 35 minute piece, made by editing hundreds of found amateur snapshots into a cinematic stream, is set to an original score with new readings of Hughes’ monumental cycle of poems by Nesbitt Blaisdell, Carla Bozulich, Julie Spodeck, Flaminia Genari, Eve Sussman, Simon Lee and Algis Kizys.

The film begins with Lineage, a poem that abridges The Book of Genesis into 21 lines and from which the protagonist Crow emerges. A journey begins that takes us from Oedipus’ familial catastrophe to Crow’s mad battle with the sun. Deaf to all but his own cries of importance the film finally returns Crow to his roots: ‘trembling, featherless, elbows in the nests filth’.

Where is the Black Beast? has been screened at the IFC center NYC, the Rotterdam Film Festival Holland, the LOOP video festival Barcelona, the Zebra Poetry Film Festival Berlin, Decalogue: Films You Can Count On Two Hands at Winkleman Gallery NYC, and in 2012 will be featured at the Mediations Biennial Poland.

Simon Lee works in photography, video and installation. His public arts project, Bus Obscura, was part of Miami Basel in 2004 and has since toured extensively in the US and abroad. He has shown work at the Tinguely Museum in Basel, The Passenger’s Festival in Warsaw, Roebling Hall New York, Pierogi Brooklyn, Univeristy of Hertforshire London and Colgate University Hamilton. His photo series Shadow over the Land (made in conjunction with Eve Sussman’s whiteonwhite:algorithmicnoir) has been shown at Haunch of Venison in London, Gallerie Senda in Barcelona, Galleri Bo Bjerggaard in Copenhagen and Cristin Tierney gallery in New York. He is represented in New York by Cristin Tierney.

Algis Antanas Kizys is a Brooklyn based musical performer/writer/sound composer/ director who has previously and/or presently worked/played bass/toured/recorded with Swans, Foetus(J.G. Thirlwell), Of Cabbages And Kings, Lydia Lunch, The Glenn Branca Ensemble, Pigface, Carla Bozulich, Alex Hacke, Danielle de Picciotto, Nels Cline,The Hallicrafters, Mathew Barney, Jonathan Bepler, Simon Lee, Eve Sussman, Doug Henderson, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, amongst others. His film credits include "Finding Forrester" by Gus Van Sant, "Meine Zahne in Paris" by Angela Christlieb, "The Rape of the Sabine Women" and "whiteonwhite:algorithmicnoir" by Eve Sussman/Rufus Corporation. His video and sound composition “Reepeeled” was part of “The Dream Machine Project” by Experimental Skeleton, Inc.