Magic Lantern Performance
W.H. HUDSON'S REMARKABLE ARGENTINE ORNITHOLOGY
Glass Slides, Recorded Voice and Music / 15 min. / 2013
W. H. Hudson's Remarkable Argentine Ornithology is a live performance utilizing authentic refurbished Magic Lanterns with hand made lantern slides. The piece appears to relate the tale of famed naturalist Hudson's spell-binding recollection of birds seen as a child from the pampas of his native Argentina--yet hidden within the exotic views and extraordinary plumage are speculations of a less flighty nature.
World Premiere at Redcat, Los Angeles, April 2013. Performances: Velaslavasay Panorama Los Angeles, Rotterdam International Film Festival, Bozar Brussels, Centre Pompidou, Paris.
World Premiere at Redcat, Los Angeles, April 2013. Performances: Velaslavasay Panorama Los Angeles, Rotterdam International Film Festival, Bozar Brussels, Centre Pompidou, Paris.
"On the surface Pryce plunges us into Hudson�s memories of birding as a child on the Argentine pampas, but Magic Lantern brings out other layers, including an encounter with nature teetering between joy and dread. This is pre-cinema at a time when we are moving beyond film. The only kind of video audio performance that it can be maybe compared with is the dusk-to-dawn Indonesian shadow puppet theater performances of gamelon orchestras. But what Pryce creates is something personal, miniature, like something you can hold in your hands. It�s like nothing I�ve ever seen in my life."
-- Robert Koehler (critic/curator)