The film and performance programme Shortsighted brought together a selection of films by Mexican artist Adriana Lara, produced over the span of her artistic career.
This programme included a live performance by guitarist David Massey as well as the premiere of Ocuardo (Awkward), a film by Lara featuring a new soundtrack by electronic musician Leafcutter John.
Working with sculpture, film, painting and installation, Lara combines an acute eye for paradoxes and mind traps with a sense of the humorous, folding the spectator or onlooker into convivial situations that subtly reveal the complexities underpinning everyday processes and gestures. The programme of short films ranges from computer-generated animation to a black-and-white film influenced by Italian neorealism. Following the screening, Lara was in conversation with Stella Bottai (Junior Curator, Fiorucci Art Trust) and Lucia Pietroiusti (Curator, Public Programmes, Serpentine Galleries). This was Lara’s first solo presentation in London, in conjunction with the launch of the latest issue of her fanzine Pazmaker, hosted by Fiorucci Art Trust.
Adriana Lara lives and works in Mexico City. She has had one-person exhibitions at Kusnsthalle Basel, Switzerland (2012); Air de Paris, France (2012); Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City (2010); Artpace San Antonio (2009); Algus Greenspon, New York (2012-13) and most recently at Indipendenza, Rome (2014). Lara has been featured in numerous group exhibitions including Marrakech Biennale 5 (2014), documenta (13) (2012), CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco (2012), MUSAC, Spain (2010), the New Museum, New York (2009), and the Jumex Collection in Mexico City (2008). She also participates in the collaborative curatorial project Perros Negros and the music collective Lasser Moderna. Since 2006 Lara edits Pazmaker, a fanzine published in Mexico City.
Leafcutter John is an internationally renowned electronic musician, songwriter and artist. He has released five critically acclaimed albums and has performed his award-winning work worldwide. John also develops music software and hardware interfaces. He has worked in dance, theatre and teaches at Brunel University. John has worked with Talvin Singh, Wayne McGregor | Random Dance, BBC Symphony and Concert orchestras and has played concerts worldwide with Beck, Jarvis Cocker, Matmos, Grace Jones, Nick Cave, Keith Fullerton Whitman, Yo La Tengo, Beth Orton, Otomo Yoshihide, Aki Onda, Philip Jeck, Tujiko Noriko, Sebastian Rochford, Janek Schaefer and Tomoko Takahashi. John’s current work is Light Controlled Music, a music performance system comprising a light-sensitive controller and specialised software developed by John over the last two years. It is played gesturally using handheld lights and other light sources. The sounds produced are strongly related to the performers actions and are all produced in real-time. It is a stunningly immersive audiovisual experience http://leafcutterjohn.com/.
Guitarist David Massey studied at the Royal Academy of Music. He has performed at Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room at Southbank Centre, Sage Gateshead, Kings Place and St Martin in the Fields amongst other and premièred several new works. He has a particular interest in transcriptions and collaboration and has an ongoing duo partnership with flautist Emily Andrews (www.andrewsmasseyduo.com), with whom he has released three CDs.
Serpentine Cinema is a series of artists’ and film-makers’ screenings and performances held in a cinema context. In partnership with Picturehouse Cinemas.
