| In Review: Action Figures with Scott Banning |
| Written by Ken Hamel | |
| Tuesday, 28 October 2008 | |
 Katie Taft with filmmaker Scott Banning - photo by Ken Hamel/DenverArts.org Local artist Katie Taft had a steady Tuesday evening gig presenting artist talks at Double Daughters back in 06/07 but took a well deserved rest from the weekly grind to focus on other projects. Taft is back with a new series of artist talks, again on Tuesday evenings but this time around the frequency is monthly and the venue has been ad hoc. October's Action Figure was local filmmaker and musician Scott Banning who presented current work to an SRO crowd at Abecedarian Gallery on Santa Fe Drive (where he also has a series of still images from his films on display as part of the "Modest in Scale" exhibit currently on display.) Banning is an old school film addict who spent years collecting obsolete 16mm films and projectors from library and school auctions, and professes to have somewhere between 400 and 500 pounds of various footage in his stash. In addition to 16mm, Banning has also spent time with Super 8 and admited to an affinity for old Tri-x film stock which has a distinctive patina of shifting grain. And while 3 of the films certainly exhibited that Tri-x look—swimming patterns of dots in a high contrast black and white world—the final work "Princess (Phagocytosis)" featured luscious abstract textures created by spraying his found footage with chemical solvents resulting in visual music akin to the Stan Brakhage songbook. Banning created "Princess" by aiming 2 projectors onto a single screen and then capturing the composite image with a digital video camera; unfortunately the toxic brew used to modify the stock footage caused it to disintegrate which is a shame as it would have been a real joy to see actual film on the big screen. The evening was an even balance of film and music, as Banning—through his musical project Itchy-O—composed and performed all of the soundtracks for the four films presented. Itchy-O will be at the Hi-Dive in January '09 and seeing that Banning admitted he can never perform without having film/video as part of the act, you can be sure that you'll get a chance to see some of his visual creations. The next Action Figure artist talk on Tuesday December 16th will feature Nathan Abels and will be held at "The Shoppe" on East Colfax. Click here for a snippet on Abels show at Sliding Door Gallery earlier this year, and look out for his next show at Rule Gallery opening in November. - KLH |
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