Bruce Conner, who passed away in 2008, was an American
artist renowned for his work in assemblage, film, drawing, sculpture, painting,
collage, photography, and, as we shall see, multimedia “happenings”.
To discuss the work that Bruce Conner produced at the Avalon
Ballroom in 1966, is to discuss his relationship with fellow artist and
collaborator Ben Van Meter. In the late 1960s, Conner started working with the “North
American Ibis Alchemical Light Show”, a group founded by Ben Van Meter, the creator
of underground, experimental art films and light shows. The company was a
collaborative effort between many artists, and they were responsible for
background imagery during the now-legendary shows. The list of bands they
backed up visually is a who’s who of the west coast music scene and include such
acts as the Grateful Dead, Janis and the Holding Company, Steve Miller, and the
Doors, to name a few. Conner’s involvement allowed him to explore the idea of
art as an experience beyond just the visual.
In an interview with Paul Karlstrom in 1974, Conner states,
“It was probably about 1965 or 1966, that I got involved
with light shows. I worked at the Avalon Ballroom up through 1967. That was
three or four nights a week with a light show called the North American Ibis
Alchemical Light Show. It more or less culminated all my work with motion
pictures. Because I was working with two or three sixteen millimeter projectors
in the same way. There was a whole bank of slide projectors with sixty slides
in each: there were a dozen of those. And three strobe lights, and overhead
liquid projectors. There were five or six other people who were working with me
on this. It was like working in a rock band. People would improvise. We were
improvising off the music and the music would improvise off us. It was like a
200 degree screen. Most of my movies prior to that time dealt with sound and a
more or less visual mime to the music (or sound). It just broke up completely.
It was consumed then. And it was all happening, rather than spending four
months editing a four-minute movie that everybody sat and watched until it
ended. After that I really couldn't make the same movies as I had done before.
Although the only movies I've done since then are structurally like the ones
I'd done before”
To follow the course of events that led to their eventual
collaboration, we need to take one step back to the origin of the project. Stemming
from a gig at the Fillmore by Andy Warhol’s “Exploding Plastic Inevitable” Van
Meter relays this anecdote:
“In May of 1966 Graham presented Andy Warhol’s Exploding
Plastic Inevitable. This was a multi-media show headlined by Lou Reed and Nico.
Graham had to put up plastic screens along the 100’ long side wall of the hall
for Warhol to project his films on, and I knew that he was not going to take
them down. I asked him to hire me to fill them the coming week and he agreed.
My friend Roger Hillyard and I set up in the balcony opposite the screens and
began trying to fill them with a couple of overhead projectors for liquids, one
16mm, one 8mm movie projectors and one Kodak Carousel slide projector. So began
the Light Show Daze.”
Eventually, through a nearly inevitable disagreement with
Bill “The Wolf” Graham, Van Meter left the Fillmore and he and his troupe found
their way to the Avalon Ballroom under the direction of the more amiable Chet
Helms, who ran the “Family Dog” which was his dance/concert promotion company.
It was at this point that Conner came into the picture.
Van Meter discusses the work process with Conner:
“At the height of the whole thing we were grooving together
like a finely attuned jazz combo. We made moving 100’ long collages on the
screen, the band, the dancers and the ceiling. During a band’s set we would
create a fantastic, moving mural of saints and nudes and flowers and people of all
stripes, from film Bruce and I shot, found film, slides of art, classical and
original, hand painted, flowing liquid projections and flashing lights of
various kinds. At the end of the band’s set we would leave the finished piece
on the screens for a few moments to admire, then we would destroy it and all go
up on the roof to smoke weed to get ready for the next band.”
Van Meter’s artistic
vision was, “to create “Enormous, Moving Rauschenberg’s.” Van Meter states
that, “I was and still am a pretty creative guy, but Bruce was the most
creative person I have ever known. If I was a fountain, he was a volcano. Bruce
contributed his enormous talents and incredible creative energy to the show. He
brought his films to project and did everything including liquid projections.”
Van Meter describes his experience of working with Conner,
stating that, “We operated a lot like a jazz combo; more that than a rock and
roll band as nothing was rehearsed. During a band’s set we would all improvise
visually with the projectors to the music until we had created a 100’ long
collage. 'When the music’s over, turn out the lights.’ (doors lyric) Which we
did and then destroyed what we had on the screen and started over again on the
next set. It was a unique kind of artistic collaboration the like of which I
haven’t seen since. It was the most fun I have ever had out of bed.”
By the very nature of the performances, there is
not much in the way of provenance, besides some footage taken mostly by Van Meter
at various events. What we do know, is that Conner hand painted several slides
that were used in tandem with the oil projections. Originally created for light
shows hosted at San Francisco’s Avalon Ballroom, eight hand-colored slides were
projected on the walls to enhance the experience of the musical performances. These
slides by Conner offered a unique means of engagement with art beyond the
static artwork. They manifested an art of experience—one that, depending on
when, where, and with whom these art slides are projected. The experience was
one that constantly changed, evolved and revealed new meanings and
associations. 
No comments
Post a Comment