Join us Saturday, April 5, at 2 pm, for a screening in our series a field of bloom and hum on film. The series, inspired by the exhibition a field of bloom and hum, is guest-curated by film scholar Jon Davies, who will introduce the screening and be in conversation following. The series is also part of Whole Grain: Experiments in Film & Video.

This screening is part of the Queer Archives Symposium.

Eternal Homes of the Transient Heart Notes

The emergence of “queer” as a movement in culture, politics and thought was closely tied to the advent of the AIDS pandemic in the 1980s. In the face of devastating loss, we must imagine queer community as encompassing and embracing both the living and the dead. This program of six films and videos begins in a spirit of mournful elegy but gradually transforms into something else: art’s promise of eternal life, resurrection, cosmic release.

Unfinished film (with sequence in memory of Peter Hujar) (dir. David Wojnarowicz, US, 1987, 16 min., Super 8 transferred to digital video, b&w, silent)
The legendary New York artist David Wojnarowicz composed this lyrical Super 8 film sequence in memory of his beloved friend and mentor, photographer Peter Hujar, whose death from AIDS in November 1987 was documented by Wojnarowicz soon after. A rare screening! Copyright Estate of David Wojnarowicz; courtesy of the Estate of David Wojnarowicz and P·P·O·W, New York.

finally destroy us (dir. Tom Kalin, US, 1991, 4 min., digital)
“But these meetings, these partings, finally destroy us.” – Virginia Woolf “Defiantly romantic, finally destroy us is a video torch song to the sound of Annie Lennox singing Cole Porter. Tom Kalin’s subject is the end of a relationship, and his offering is a scrapbook of lush recollections of love.” – Jason Simon

Nomads (dir. Tom Kalin, US, 1993, 5 min., digital)
“I fear nomads. I am afraid of them and afraid for them too.” – Jane Bowles

“Tom Kalin’s recent videos draw from literary quotations to instigate video corollaries. Inspiring this travelogue is a line from Jane Bowles’ story ‘Camp Cataract.’ The figure of the nomad has been invoked to describe a number of modern phenomena, including the urban homeless, the artist and the computer hacker…” – Jason Simon

The Attendant (dir. Isaac Julien, UK, 1993, 9 min., digital)
The Attendant explores spatial temporalities in a museum context—specifically Wilberforce House in Hull, UK, dedicated to the history of slavery—commenting on queer history and racial boundaries. The plot revolves around the sexual fantasies aroused after closing time in a middle-aged black male museum guard by a young white male visitor.

The Liberation of Mannique Mechanique (dir. Steven Arnold, US, 1967, 15 min., 16 mm)
“Each gesture, movement, position, as well as all of the costuming, makeup and props work in a harmony for this under-dream-world of Eastern magicians. Even the bodies of the actors look as though they were designed for the film. Steven Arnold has made a beautiful and powerful film poem that is saturated with style.” – Robert Nelson

The Dark, Krystle (dir. Michael Robinson, US, 2013, 10 min., digital)
The cabin is on fire! Krystle can’t stop crying, Alexis won’t stop drinking, and the fabric of existence hangs in the balance, again and again and again.

About a field of bloom and hum on film

Weaving together historical and contemporary film/video works by artists, this five-screening series, guest-curated by Jon Davies, pulls out threads and expands on the exhibition a field of bloom and hum, which focuses on queer lives and networks. How do we survive both individually and collectively when we are under threat? How does “queer” reimagine what kinship can be? What can we do for our elders and for those who will come after us? What lessons does the queer and trans past hold for our fraught present? Rethinking body and voice, the personal and the political, and the space between the living and the dead, each program draws on a queer cultural practice that was key to the 1980s–1990s—the era when the word “queer” was first reclaimed to name a new wave of radical activist, artistic and intellectual activity catalyzed by the (ongoing) AIDS pandemic—and considers its meaning, power and value today, in a time of great peril. All shorts programs bring together 16mm film and video.

a field of bloom and hum on film Screenings

– Thursday, March 20, 6 pm: A Room of One’s Own

– Thursday, March 27, 7 pm: The Hatred of Capitalism

– Thursday, April 3, 6 pm: The Dancer from the Dance

– Saturday, April 5, 2 pm: Eternal Homes of the Transient Heart

– Thursday, April 10, 6 pm: The Personal Is Political

All screenings are free and open to the public.

About Jon Davies

Jon Davies is a curator, writer and scholar from Montreal. In 2023, he received his PhD in Art History from Stanford University and co-curated the 68th Robert Flaherty Film Seminar, Queer World-Mending, with artist Steve Reinke, which took place at Skidmore College. He is the 2024–2025 General Idea Fellow at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.

About Whole Grain

The Tang Teaching Museum’s Whole Grain series explores classic and contemporary work in experimental film and video. Whole Grain is organized by Assistant Director for Engagement Tom Yoshikami.