John Sanborn | Thematic Pairs [video art Futurespective]

An evening of award-winning media art created by John Sanborn

Media art created by John Sanborn, featuring four pairs of works, one from the 1980s and one from recent times. As the world has changed, the artist’s passions have not.

During the two years of organizing a retrospective of my work at ZKM—Zentrum für Kunst und Medien (Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe)—with curators Philip Ziegler and Stephen Sarrazin, we wrestled with the question of how to represent my highly productive 1980s. The curators argued that the 55+ single-channel works and several intense installations that came in a rush of inspiration and production deserved some kind of attention.

I wanted to feature more recent projects, and I felt that the older works were a deadweight I was tired of carrying. Then, my friend and fellow artist (and director of the ZKM), the late Dr. Peter Weibel, scolded me, saying, “To have one foot in the past and one in the future is exactly where you want to be.” He pointed out that my themes remained steadfast while technology, culture, and times changed. I continued investigating transformation, our operations to define our “self,” and the frequencies of human experience.

To share this, I developed Thematic Pairs, a screening with a discussion that brashly represents what Peter identified and takes the viewer across decades of media art creation. Each pair of works contains a “classic” from the 1980s, matched with a project from recent years – illuminating the evolution of circumstances, played against the constancy of my interests.

Each pair highlights the palpable and the sublime –abstract storytelling created using structured improvisation, homages to those we lost, mixtures of beauty and nasty, and operatic adventures on the bleeding edges of music.

Playlist for the evening:

ACT III | 6:30 | 1983

John Sanborn, Dean Winkler

Music by Philip Glass. This classic work builds an imaginary world from briskly multiplying three-dimensional forms that echo the repetitive strains and vital energy of Glass’ music.I

In C, Too | 5:00 | 2023

John Sanborn, Dean Winkler

Music composed by Elaena Ruher, performed by Sarah Cahill

In C, Too uses the tools of our all-digital age to illuminate how close our dreams are to a common reality.

Untitled | 10:44 | 1989

Performed by Bill T. Jones

Untitled pays tribute to the life and work of the dancer and choreographer Arnie Zane, who died of AIDS in 1988. His long-time partner, Bill T. Jones, evokes memories of Zane through a stark, eloquent dance lament and a parade of ghostly portraits and photographs.

Hotel Essex | 4:46 | 2021

music by COMMANDO, words by Juba Kalamka

COMMANDO is a queer/thrash band featuring a collective of eight LGBTQ+ musicians, all highly creative and talented. The work is an homage to gay poet and activist Essex Hemphill – where lead vocalist Kalamka raps, sings, and shouts over similarly crisp, aggressive guitars and drums.

Ear to the Ground | 4:27 | 1982

Produced and Directed by Kit Fitzgerald and John Sanborn

Conceived and performed by David Van Tieghem

Van Tieghem plays the streets of New York City with reckless abandon. The sound you hear is just as it happened, the rousing alarm of the Big Apple.

Now Their Pain is Sugar | 5:01 | 2023

Music by Simon Goff

Performed by Sarah Cecilia Bukowski and Paunika Jones

This work uses a combination of lidar and photometric scanning to produce live 3D models of the dancers Sarah and Paunika. Their slow but deliberate movement fools the functionality of the scans to suggest the complexities of the wear and tear of living. They are, at once, aching and sweet.

Perfect Lives (excerpts) | 7:08 | 1983

Composed by Robert Ashley

Robert Ashley’s epic work has been called a comic opera about reincarnation and was realized for television with a combination of location photography, computer graphics, text on screen, fantastic piano playing by “Blue” Gene Tyranny; and the transcendent voice of Robert Ashley.

God in 3 Persons (excerpts) | 10:00 | 2022

Written and Performed by The Residents

in collaboration with media artist John Sanborn

A singular, live version of The Residents’ legendary 1988 album God in Three Persons – the story of a traveling evangelist and his twisted obsession with a pair of conjoined twins he claims to be miracle workers. It does not end well.