Exhibition Screening: Giles Bailey introduces Spalding Gray

As part of a programme of screenings and events accompanying Giles Bailey and Jeremiah Day's current exhibition, Giles Bailey will introduce two short films focusing on the performances of the late American actor and writer, Spalding Gray. A great influence on Bailey's work, Spalding Gray is known for his autobiographical monologues, re-telling stories and constructing unorthodox narratives which serve complex or partial histories.

Spalding Gray's "A Personal History of the American Theater"
Skip Blumberg / 1985, 27min.

Here Blumberg captures the minimalist style of performance artist Spalding Gray, who has refined the art of the autobiographical monologue to a provocative form of cultural critique. Taking his cues from a stack of cards with the names of plays in which he performed throughout the 1960s and 70s, Gray turns each tidbit of information into an inspired anecdote and becomes animated with recollection. In this humorous and enthusiastic rendition of his personal roles in avant-garde theatre, Gray presents a microcosm of the relentless and self-conscious experimentation of this period of American theatre.

Double Lunar Dogs
Joan Jonas / 1984, 24min.

Inspired by the science fiction story Universe by Robert Heinlein, Double Lunar Dogs is an Orwellian vision of post-apocalyptic survival aboard a drifting spaceship whose timeless travellers have forgotten the purpose of their mission. To recapture memory and create a continuum between their unknown origin and uncertain destination, the characters in this disjunctive, philosophical narrative play metaphorical games with words and archetypal objects. To depict this fantastic voyage, which was originally produced as a performance, Jonas uses sophisticated imaging techniques and special effects, condensing time and space in a stylized, abstracted video theatre. This symbolic narrative conveys a profound sense of dislocation and isolation.