Artists' Film Club: David Lamelas Pt 3

The third screening of work by David Lamelas.

Argentinian artist David Lamelas is a pioneer of conceptual and installed film works. Studying in London in the 1960s he made some of his first installed moving image works including the well-known Study of Relationships Between Inner and Outer Space (1969) and To Pour Milk into a Glass (1972) while beginning his ongoing series of studies Time As Activity in multiple European cities. In the late 1970s he moved to Los Angeles, making several collaborative works with artist Hildegarde Duane. This multi-part programme is a comprehensive selection of these moving image works, screened in the presence of the artist.

All images courtesy of David Lamelas and LUX, London

Programme

GUN
(dir. Hildegarde Duane and David Lamelas, 1997, black and white, sound, 12 min)

A man and a woman stalk each other through a house in a highly staged sequence, in which the air of suspense and use of shadows and black and white is reminiscent of a film noir thriller. The woman (Hildegarde Duane) shots the man (David Lamelas) and he falls to his death from the roof of the building.

Light at the Edge of a Nightmare
(2002-2005, colour, black and white, sound, 85 min)

A film noir filmed in various episodes in Buenos Aires, Hollywood, Berlin, Paris and London, in which Lamelas revisits his concerns with the building blocks of narrative and Borgesian themes of eternal recurrence. In the film, the characters use the screen as directional axes. A woman returns from the past to relive a love story that did not prosper. The character travels from city to city with the same memory.

The programme runs for 97 minutes.