Portal Atop a Bus Stop (ver. I)
14 March 2017

curated screening presented at Red Barn Project Space, University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB), 13.07.2015


The appearance of a weathered VHS copy of Hellraiser atop a bus shelter on Old Kent Road in South London became a kind of urban legend, or at least a puzzle. Since this first occurrence in 2012, there have been other instances, other portals opening, visible from the upper level of double-decker buses. Copycats aside, the content of the bleached VHS case, Clive Barker’s 1987 film, has at

its core a puzzle box, the ‘Lament Configuration’. This box, when solved, can suture dimensions. From the other side, the ‘Cenobites’, demonic in appearance, claim the clever individual for a suturing of another kind, between pleasure and pain. A pop mystery, the VHS tape in its odd placement, now a different sort of analog puzzle box, offers a detour on a routine commute. Portals, mundane or not, need a here and there, a clever body to pass through.


Portal Atop a Bus Stop is a screening of international

artists’ films and videos (im)materializing in various constellations for a multitude of sites. This is its first incarnation.


Programme: 


JUST DO IT, Avril Corroon, 2014, 6:42


The Eternal Quarter Inch, Jesse McLean, 2008, 9:00


Slow Fragmentation, Sam Smith, 2015, 5:30


∆ HS. FS. ZWN-BS. NC. BS, Paul Simon Richards, 2014, 14:00


Figure-ground, Jean-Paul Kelly, 2013, 4:46


Devil’s Gate, Laura Kraning, 2011, 20:00


Immortality,

Home and Elsewhere, Sasha Litvintseva, 2014, 12:28


*Programme notes available here.



JUST DO IT, Avril Corroon, 2014

The Eternal Quarter Inch, Jesse McLean, 2008

Slow Fragmentation, Sam Smith, 2015

∆ HS. FS. ZWN-BS. NC. BS, Paul Simon Richards, 2014

Figure-ground, Jean-Paul Kelly, 2013

Devil’s Gate, Laura Kraning, 2011

Immortality, Home and Elsewhere, Sasha Litvintseva, 2014