Get Some Time Alone

Getting time alone is easy. Simply say, "I'm going to go see an experimental film," and watch your friends run from you like fire ants from water. But say, "I'm going to go see a feature-length experimental film," and they will, if they are truly your friends, throw you face down into those same ants. In the mid-1990s, artist Chris Kraus made Gravity and Grace, a film about bored college students, to achieve larger notoriety. Instead, the film met total failure when audiences realized it was about college students who are bored. To cope, in 1997 she wrote a novel called I Love Dick, which by the law of irony, became a critical success that bred two more novels; a prominent career as an art critic, editor, and literature professor; and a re-examination of her early experimental films.

Kraus speaks this Saturday at 2 p.m. at MoCA at Goldman Warehouse as part of MoCA's new discussion series titled “Workshop.” In a further irony, Gravity and Grace is being featured in the museum's ongoing exhibition “The Possibility of an Island.” Go for the dynamic personality of Kraus; stick around for the fire ants. Admission is by donation.
Sat., Jan. 17, 2009