The Title Spoils the Ending: Films of Joyce Wieland

Oct. 4 + 5 - 7:30 pm

$8 Suggested Donation

VFW Hall
SE 9th & SE Mill

"Rat Life & Diet in North America" by Joyce Wieland

"Reason Over Passion" by Joyce Wieland

Work Stills:

About This Screening

Joyce Wieland (1930–1998) had already achieved some artistic success as a painter before moving from Toronto to New York in 1962. It was there and then that she began making experimental films as yet another medium in her assortment of quilts, paintings, sculptures, books... and a cake. Her varied methods all have in common a playful patriotism and political critique, and both an awkward femininity and complex take on feminism. While her stuffed film sculptures and paintings consistently engage with the film frame, her films themselves reference back to her quilts and sculptures. It is through the entirety of her work that we see a charming and clever understanding of semantics: a separation of the whole into pieces, and a brilliant use of language and text. This two-night program of Wieland’s moving-image work will include the feature-length Reason Over Passion, which displays the very words of the title, uttered from then Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, repeated in 537 computer-generated permutations like subtitles over degraded footage of landscapes shot from moving vehicles. Also a selection of shorts, including Sailboat, a three-minute gem of a film that will sail its way into your heart.

Supported by the Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Gallery, Reed College.

Program Details

October 4th

Rat Life & Diet in North America
by Joyce Wieland
Canada, 1968, 16mm, color, sound, 14 min.
Water Sark
by Joyce Wieland
Canada, 1965, 16mm, color, sound, 14 min.
Sailboat
by Joyce Wieland
Canada, 1967, 16mm, color, sound, 3 min.
A & B in Ontario
by Joyce Wieland
Canada, 1984, 16mm, color, sound, 16 min.
1933
by Joyce Wieland
Canada, 1967, 16mm, color, sound, 4 min.
Solidarity
by Joyce Wieland
Canada, 1973, 16mm, color, sound, 20 min.