ARTIST STATEMENT
I’ve always been in love with the visual image: filmmaking, photography, painting, drawing. As an experimental filmmaker, my films have been distributed by Light Cone in Paris, France since 1986. Film topics encompass dreamscapes, landscapes, cityscapes and portraits. A special focus of my portraits is cultural people (artists, curators, collectors), and how their lives are informed by their interiors and artistic tastes. Some films are with sound, but most are silent as I prefer the viewer to be completely absorbed with the image.
Born and raised in Chicago, I received my MFA in Film, as well as my MA in Art History, both from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. As a graduate student, I was the teaching assistant for Stan Brakhage and P. Adams Sitney, and I interviewed Hollis Frampton for the Video Data Bank.
As an educator, I taught film production and film history at Columbia College, Chicago. My films have been exhibited internationally, including “A History of American 8MM Film” at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; “Art in Chicago: 1945-1995, Lyrical Explorations” at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; “Light Cone Preview Show” at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, France; and many one-person exhibitions in film museums and showcases in Berlin; Munich; Frankfurt; Paris; Naples, Italy; Toronto; New York; Los Angeles; Chicago; and more.
Most recently, I have incorporated painting and photography back into my image-making process, in many ways coming full circle from my earliest days as an artist. I now appreciate the quiet stillness and nuance that can be achieved through painting and photography.
© Adele Friedman