#allan brown

[venturama]

John Michell

[kesara]

Urban Forest [IMG_0075] by Kesara Rathnayake Via Flickr: Urban Forest - wind sculpture by Leon van den Eijkel in collaboration with Allan Brown. The sculpture is installed in Cobham Dr, Kilbirnie, Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington.

[vervedoff]

Inside The Wicker Man ~ Allan Brown

[ourlocalnettle]

Allan Brown’s film is very detailed and explanatory about his chosen processes in order to make yarns from nettles.

[continent-of-wild-endeavor]

(via https://vimeo.com/225183045?ref=tu-v-share)

[decuir-international]

Wishful Thinking: The films and videos of Allan Brown

My wishful thinking for the Canadian film/video artist Allan Brown is that he become more well-known, more celebrated, both locally and internationally. Here is an artist who has been making moving image work for almost 30 years, constantly refining his unique method and style, sometimes along the way winning awards at festivals. Even though he might not be a household name in the world of alternative film and video cultures his body of work cannot be denied. He deserves a spot among the best contemporary Canadian film/video artists. This occasion, his first European survey program, serves as a supporting argument. 

What is notable about Brown is his development and extension of the found footage film, his dedication to shooting in analog formats, and the subtle, layered nature of his social critique. What is also crucial is his consistency, as he usually makes a few works per year. Of utmost concern is his belief in the image, his cinematic affinities. His works are pure visual experiences – Kinetosis, as he might call it, as the title of one of his works indicates, and which we might take as a programmatic expression for his oeuvre.

Brown’s use of archival images must be considered in relation to his use of archival sound. As he states, sound is a binding agent in his work, what makes the piece whole. This includes archival recordings, also the syncopated collage of sound effects that at times combine to form experimental music. There is often an urgency to both the tone of his music and the content of the archival sound recordings. In the apocalyptic, mesmerizing Square Dance Hypnotist we hear a tortuously extended emergency call from the side of a lonely highway. In other works we hear the remnants of state surveillance and law enforcement activities. Brown’s complex form of montage in both sound and image often run parallel to each other, occasionally intersecting, weaving together a world that seems to be out of control, were it not for the rigorous craftsmanship on display.

We might call Brown an artisanal film/video-maker – meaning someone who works in an intimate and modest fashion in relation to his materials. He sources his own audio and video fragments, edits his own material, and sometimes creates his own musique concrète. Despite the unity of his view on the world, the unity of his aesthetic, Brown’s cinema is not formulaic and it is also not theoretical. It is elemental. Returning to Wishful Thinking, the title of his newest work, the audio interference that he whips up and cycles has the effect of sounding like a brewing storm. The stuttering images of horse-drawn chariots again evoke a coming apocalypse. Is Brown wishing for the end of the world, or for aesthetic gale winds that can bring order to chaos? The answer might become more apparent as his outstanding body of work continues to grow.

Greg de Cuir Jr, Curator

September 2017