The Big Idea

Little Berlin presents an exhibition of work that refers to the condition of not meeting the desired objective of a big idea.

Never meant to change the world (Cocksucker Blues) by Chris Forsyth

The Big Idea Lamination Ritual with Egnekn, The Minister of Lamination and Andrea, The Enchantress of Bioluminosity Untitled (Surrender) by Marissa Perel and Oliverio Rodriquez and Fritz Welch’s installation “was it something someone said? no, it was something in my head…”culminates with a monolog

Chris Forsyth performs Never meant to change the world (Cocksucker Blues),  an audio commentary/accompaniment to the ultimate document of the vacancy of the hippiedom, Robert Frank’s Cocksucker Blues.

Nadia Hironaka and Matthew Suib’s 1967 is equal parts film essay, performance, live teleconference and animated text, during which Veronique (the Mao-­‐adoring protagonist of Godard’s film La Chinoise) heads to Montreal with the intent to  disrupt Expo’67 is some unspecified manner and winds up witnessing an experimental film that simultaneously depicts past, present and future revolutions (from her vantage point circa ’67).

Veronique narrates this string of events, shifting between polemic and meditations on the nature of cinema and filmmaking.

Elaine Kaufmann’s Your Mother Country Appeals to You explores how contemporary advertising articulates a utopian vision as a means to further an agenda of profit and corporate power.  This project combines the imagery of Soviet posters   with the text of contemporary advertising, juxtaposing text and image to expose the emptiness of flowery corporate promises.

Ken Montgomery a.k.a. Egnekn, The Minister of Lamination performs Laminating Ritual which celebrates the transformation of the mundane into the realms of OFFICIALDOM, of ordinary into extraordinary.  Lamination is completely participatory and accessible to everyone.

Kristen Neville Taylor examines human attempts to replicate nature, specifically qualities of earth for space, inspired by the 1972 film Solaris.

Aphorisms, poetry and etc. is about the contention between science and mysticism and the challenge for technology to influence our sense perception.

Laura Parnes’ Blood and Guts in High School re-­‐imagines punk-­‐feminist icon Kathy Acker’s book of the same title.  Each video-­‐chapter presents a typical scene in the life of Janie bracketed by U.S. news events from the time period in which   the book was written.  As the viewer looks back at pivotal historical events (Jonestown Massacre, Moral Majority, Three Mile Island, etc.) connections are drawn in relation to our current political situation.

Mutually generated texts on the limitations of the body and the failures of intimacy, identity and death are the basis of Untitled (Surrender), where Marissa Perel and Oliverio Rodriguez enforce constraints on one another that elicit performative submission.

Fabio Roberti’s A Litany of Failure is a selection of archived shows of his weekly radio broadcast Strength Through Failure with Fabio in WFMU.  The broadcast is preserved and played through an 8-­‐track player.

Fritz Welch has created a sculptural installation that approaches the issue of failure in creative practice as well as in life.  He questions the validity of failure through an analysis of childhood experience and its relationship to making and  showing art.

On the night of the opening the piece, “was it something someone said? no, it was something in my head…“, will be occupied by an actor who will deliver a monologue.