Takahiko Iimura’s Circle & Square and Joel Schlemowitz’s Kannon, the Goddess of Mercy

The 1981 performance Circle & Square by Takahiko Iimura, New York-based Japanese film and video pioneer, evolved from the artist's interest in exposing the apparatus of projection and the materiality of image and light, which began in the mid-60s. The work commences with the projection of a long loop of black 16mm film leader suspended from the ceiling. The artist punches a hole on the film's surface and as it loops through the projector's gate, a single white circle of light pierces the darkness. With each subsequent punch the film builds before the viewer’s eyes into a cascade of white circles before reaching its abrupt and revelatory conclusion.

Joel Schlemowitz’s new performance, Kannon, Goddess of Mercy, unifies various practices, technologies, instruments, and arcane interests of the artist’s twenty-year practice into a single work. The artist generates anaglyph 3D imagery in real time through the superimposition of images from two overhead projectors, while performing a 78rpm soundtrack on the Victrola. The imagery is culled from ancient Chinese joss paper, tarots, and star charts portraying the Goddess Kannon as she enters the red chamber to observe the different phases of the moon.

Dreamlands: Expanded is a series of expanded cinema events organized by Microscope Gallery in collaboration with the Whitney as part of the exhibition Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016. 

Tickets for this event are available for purchase here.

Please note: All Dreamlands: Expanded events take place at Microscope Gallery, with the exception of Steam Screens and The Owl Flies at Twilight, which will both be presented at Knockdown Center in Maspeth, Queens.