Go Go Go (1962-64) by Marie Menken
Thursday, June 15, 1989, 8:00 pm
REASSESSING THE FILMS OF MARIE MENKEN
Presentation by Filmmaker Barbara Hammer
“Marie Menken’s films of the 1940s and 1950s have been overlooked in critical theory of the avant-garde. Whereas the visual myths and stories of Maya Deren have been highlighted, Menken’s visual paintings have gone underseen and understudied. Menken’s concerns of the figure/ground relationship (Arabesque For Kenneth Anger), line drawing (Glimpse of the Garden), color field studies (Eye Music in Red Major), and the optical/perceptual phenomena of persistence of vision and eye fatigue (Notebook and Lights) will be addressed in cinematic terms. These films and Drips and Strips and Go Go Go will be shown. As Menken said: ‘Just look. That’s all. See only what is here. I want you to see!”’ (B.H.) Barbara Hammer is an experimental filmmaker who has been inspired and motivated by the visual, playful and direct process of working exemplified by Menken’s films.