Hannah Piper Burns' video work stakes claim to and adopts the imagery of text, pop music, and dislodged scenes from classic cinematic musicals. Among her “mash ups” are If I Were a Man (2008), juxtaposing the swagger and grace of the Jets and Sharks with the question “if I were a man, what kind of man would I be?”; Over the Anvil (2009), which pits Gene Kelly dancing against one wondering “Do I have it in me, enough for us both?”; Mermaid Blues(2009), which combines the aquatic dancing of Esther Williams with an ongoing inner dialogue about “the lifecycle of an identity”; and Outer Darkness and Skincare Tips (2016), which utilize commercials and mass media television to explore connections between content, viewer, and personal subjectivities.
Hannah Piper Burns makes and curates experimental media that is shown all over the US and Canada, including at the Walker Art Center and HAIR + NAILS in Minneapolis, the Nightingale and Tritriangle in Chicago, the University of Wisconsin and Microlights in Milwaukie, the Winnipeg Film Group and the Winnipeg Underground Film Festival in Manitoba, the Echo Park Film Center in Los Angeles, and online at ACRETV.org. Raised in Maryland and forged in San Francisco, Portland has been her home since 2009 and there, she has recently exhibited at the Northwest Filmmakers Festival, the Portland ‘Pataphysical Society, A/V Party at Open Signal, and the Say When mini-festival. Right now, she radically re-edits reality television, gives live multimedia snail facials, co-hosts a semi-annual experimental video game showcase called ALTcade, and over the past five years has co-founded and co-directed both a local film festival (EFFPortland) and a live/work project space (Compliance Division). Her solo show “Venus Retrograde” will be on view at the Portland Art Museum from February - August 2018 as part of the APEX series curated by Grace Kook-Anderson. She writes for Fandor.com, practices casualdivination, and enjoys Jazzercise.
November 13th, 2018
Grand Illusion Cinema
7:00 pm
