I wanted to make something that would serve as a visual accompaniment to Julia Holter’s song “Marienbad”, but would not be strictly tied to it. I utilized multiple film projections interacting and interfering with one another in a single composition. The material seen in this video was made with Kodak Tri-X regular 8 mm motion picture film and Kodak Plus-X 35 mm still film, all of it processed by hand. The video is a single take documenting a live performance using two 8 mm projectors and a single 35 mm projector all aimed at the same space on a screen; there is no digital manipulation of the images, and no edits have been made to the recording. Rick Bahto – January, 2012

Film / photography / projector performance by Rick Bahto.
Many thanks to Walter Vargas for digital documentation.

On July 3, 2011, MOCA Sunday Studio invited downtown experimental arts organization the wulf. to organize an afternoon of performances and interactive sound pieces in the museum in order to highlight the use of sound in the exhibition William Leavitt: Theater Objects. For 3 hours, 32 composers and performers associated with the wulf. transformed the permanent collection, Reading Room, ARCO Court and Sculpture Plaza with 20 different performances and installations ranging from an accordion octet to a dry ice percussion ensemble.

Featuring performances and pieces by Casey Anderson, Dicky Bahto, Matt Barbier, Ezra Buchla, Eric KM Clark, Scott Cazan, Daniel Corral, Corey Fogel, Carlos Inderhees, Heather Lockie, Liam Mooney, Larry Polansky, Alan Nakagawa, Wolfgang von Schweinitz, Mark So, Laura Steenberge, Luke Storm, Christine Tavolacci, Tashi Wada, Colin Wambsgans, Michael Winter and Harris Wulfson.

More information about the the wulf. can be found at thewulf.org

Video by Benjamin Rodkin.

The 8 Fest is showing my film For Pablo Valencia on Sunday, January 29, 2012 at 9 pm in the Bagerooooo, five! Part 2 program of recent small-gauge films. Also in the festival are works by four young artists in the Origins class at Echo Park Film Center in the Spring of 2011, of which I was one of the teachers. Caleb Miller’s film soledad ocultada is in the Bagerooooo, five! Part 1 program Friday night at 11 pm, Chloe Reyes’ film A Celebration of Corn is in the Adventures in Animationland program Saturday night at 11 pm, and Hayley Elliott’s Solar Flares and James Noel’s Past and Present, both double projection pieces, are on the final program Sunday at 9 pm. Also happy of course to see films by friends new and old on the program, including Jason Halprin, Pixie Cram, Robbie Land, and Paul Clipson.

LA AIR is a new artist-in-residence program that invites Los Angeles filmmakers to utilize EPFC resources in creating a new work over a four-week period. October’s resident, Rick Bahto, has an on-going series of films that are made in response to the work of other artists. During his residency, he will complete a project For Paul Clipson, dealing with aspects of the expansive body of Super 8 work from the filmmaker of that name. The screening will present this portion of Bahto’s films alongside the work of the artists to whom they are dedicated, with films and slide documentation of works by Karen Johannesen, Pablo Valencia, and Paul Clipson. He will also present films, slides, and audio documents of performances of the work of Mark So, including documentary footage of his performance of So’s work parallel to the earth (in the angles where the grass writing goes on), which was begun in mid-September and will continue on indefinitely.

Program includes: For Paul Clipson, For Karen Johannesen, For Pablo Valencia, For Bill Jenkins, Performing marmarth, and Monument Valley by Rick Bahto; Chorus by Paul Clipson; 76 Station and Pink Opaque by Karen Johannesen; Films I & II by Pablo Valencia; slides documenting work by Bill Jenkins, Pablo Valencia, and Mark So.

images thanks to Liz Kotz and Adam Overton

EAR MEAL, a sound art webcast, hosts my performance of Between Here & There. 

8pm – midnight

rick bahto & mark so | still lifes, donuts, twice around, palms.
(slides & sides)

A portion of my ongoing performance of Mark So’s parallel to the earth (In the angles where the grass writing goes on) intersects the route of this event, where Sunset Blvd. passes over Myra Ave. At some point during the road concert, I will add to my film Monument Valley, which documents the performance.

More info on the event…Los Angeles Road Concerts presents a showing of site-specific projects from over 100 Los Angeles artists in unused public outdoor spaces along the entire length of Sunset Boulevard’s 24 miles, from Downtown to the Pacific Ocean. For one day, artists will perform works, display installations, facilitate car pool happenings and make music in public spaces such as sidewalks, traffic islands, parking lots, as well as inside the audience’s cars as they traverse one of LA’s most iconic boulevards. The audience self-curates, deciding how long they want to spend at each participating artist’s spot, or to skip spots or drive at different speeds between destinations as they journey from one end of Sunset to the other, arriving eventually to a beach reception at the ocean just before sunset. An official map of the day’s events along with project descriptions and other downloadable information will be available to the public starting on September 11 on the event website (www.laroadconcerts.co.cc).

Los Angeles Road Concerts seeks to investigate the possibilities of LA’s lengthy streets as sites for artistic exploration while celebrating each street itself as a cross-section to observe the city’s diversity of landscapes and people, how the Los Angeles metropolis grew, and the assortment of in-betweens and negative spaces it left behind as it expanded. How can we generate a new kind of LA experience, utilizing its car culture to find meaning and attention to a collection of less obvious destinations? Additionally, through a wide and inclusive open call process, Los Angeles Road Concerts brings together art school graduates, local residents and other creative people to realize a broad array of kinds of interactions with the sites. Participating artists find unlikely audiences, people who might have never otherwise encountered their work but who ultimately take a great interest in it.

Participating Artists:
A’misa Chiu, Al Walz, Alexis Disselkoen + Paul Pescador, Andrea Lambert, Artie Vegas Revue with Tequila Mockingbird, Audrey Chan, Austin Young, Billy Kheel, Birthday Cake Ninjas, Chris Girard, Cindy Short and friends, Colin Wambsgans, Corey Fogel, Daiana Feuer, Danielle Adair, Darcy Yates, David Burns + Matias Viegener, Diana-Sofia Estrada, Emery C. Martin, Emily Appenzeller, Eric Lindley, Faith Purvey, For Matta-Clark (Yelena Zhelezov and Zoe Aja Moore), Francesca Penzani, Gary Schultz, Harold Abramowitz, Harpal Sodhi, Ian James and Travis Diehl, Jack Littman, Jacquelyn Davis, Jana Papenbroock, Jannon, Jennifer Styperk, Joe Milazzo, Johns Barlog + Burtle, John D’Amico, John P. Hogan, Jon Rutzmoser, Jonathan Gomez, Joseph Imhauser, Kate Durbin, Katie Jacobson, Karen Atkinson, Kelly Coats, Ken Ehrlich, Kimsu Ye + Christine Wang, Kristoffer Svenberg, Kyle Barnes, Lara Bank, Laura London, Laura Marchetti, Linda Lay, Lindsey Carl Mysse, Luiz Ricardo Lopez + Mercedes Smith + Melissa Brown, MAL Idea, Margaret Wappler, Maxfield Hegedius + Solomon Bothwell, Maryam Hosseinzadeh, Matt MacFarland, Matthew Fielder + Nate Schulman, Megan May Daalder, Michelle Detorie + the Poetry Booth, Michiko Yao and Juna Amano, Miggie Wong, MUC, Nicholas Smith, Niko Solorio, Opera Del Espacio, Paula Peng + the Time Travel Arcade, Philip Littell, Ramiro Gomez Jr, Ravens Moreland, Rebeca Hernandez, Rick Bahto, Rima Añosa and Jason Luz, Robby Herbst, Robin Myrick, Samantha Cohen, The Sanctified PerMissionaries of Signified Belief, Sarah Ibrahim, Sascha Goldhor, Sepand Shahab, Stefan Fähler, Stine Marie Jacobsen, Tessie Whitmore + Kyla Hansen, Tucker Neel, Tyler Calkin, Vincent Ramos, Yazmin Monet Watkins and more!