Reallife Moovies
VIDEOS BY MARTIN HOLT
Martin Holt is a ceramist and video artist who has documented the work of international artists on film and video since the 1960s. His documentaries provide an affectionate and informative window into what he calls "the music of what is happening." His familiarity with artists and their work together with a professional insight into their unique processes, problems and special creative abilities, makes his contribution to video documentation in this field particularly valuable.
Learn more about Martin's Film Philosophy, history and other projects.
OUR FOUNDING MUDDER Who Art in Heaven: A Workshop with Peter Voulkos (DVD, 2007, 60 min.) $65 postpaid US.
This one hour DVD presents an intimate look at Peter Voulkos’ (1924-2002) working technique at the 1993 Olympic Games of Clay in Ringebu, Norway. It demonstrates, in a candid and entertaining way the artist’s creation of a work of art formed by direct encounter with material, without preconception or contrivance. Artists, students and lay people alike will derive a living appreciation of this greatest of "mudders," an acknowledged giant of modern art at the peak of his luminous career.
Rudy Autio Makes Night Music (DVD, 1994, 40 min.) $50 postpaid US.
This 40-minute video takes the viewer into the studio and the creative experience of Rudy Autio (1927-2007) in an informal and personal way. You will follow Rudy through the process of making a sculptural vessel in ceramics, sharing with him the evolution of the piece through construction, painting, drawing and glazing. Rudy's narrative description accompanies each step, providing insight into his way of working and the philosophy that guides each creative decision. Distilling weeks of work into a focused sequence, the video anticipates the viewer's unspoken questions and reveals the playful mastery, the earnestness and humor that have characterized this gentle man's lifetime of work in art.
Akio (DVD, 1989, 10 min.) $30 postpaid US.
This is a short but inspiring visit to the studio of Akio Takemori, one of the great contemporary artists in clay in the USA. This video was shot during the last weeks that Akio attended the Archie Bray Foundation following several years of residency there. Akio talks about what he is trying to accomplish with the imagery and the material. Many young artists gain inspiration and insight from understanding how other artists approach their work. Akio is not an in-depth profile of the artist, but it captures him at a turning point in his career and illuminates his thinking.
Summer of Mudders (DVD, 1988, 30 min.) $50 postpaid US.
Video sketches of a group of emerging artists working in clay at the Archie Bray Foundation during the summer of 1988. Featured artists are Louis Katz, Chris Weaver, Suanee Natewong of Thailand, Josh DeWeese, Carol Rhorbach, Jane Masters, Carolyn Tryzibinski, Robert Harrison and others. This video would be of particular interest to students who are not sure where to proceed after completing a bachelor's degree in ceramics and who want to look into one of the various transition workshops that exist around the country. It presents an instructive variety of approaches to the clay medium by several young artists beginning to make their own marks in the world of ceramic art and craft.
Sovietski/Amerikanski (DVD, 1991, 30 min.) $45 postpaid US.
This video documents the last ceramic arts symposium sponsored by the Moscow Artists Union before the fall of the USSR in 1991. Sovietski/Amerikanski has broad appeal to anyone interested in international ceramics, especially those with particular interest in soviet ceramics and the kind of work produced by trained artists working outside of the "fine art" realm of the arts in the USSR. This piece features Peteris Martinsons and Dennis Parks as they describe how this symposium came to happen and touches some of the issues that relate to the changing relationships between eastern Europe and the USA.
Read more about the trip to Russia and the experience at the Moscow Artists Union.
Travels in Baltica (DVD) $55 postpaid US.
Kommun E Kating with 3enemie (DVD) $35 postpaid US.
Horizon (DVD) $40 postpaid US.
Videos by Martin Holt (not currently available for sale)
Kruisesses (Not available)
She wants him. He is ambivalent, tempted by another. Reallife moovies unfold.
Love triangles form and fall apart.
The girl lusts. The guy is okay hanging out. He touches her. It seals her desire. Another presents herself. He is distracted. The first will not be denied. Steel band music hammers on the wind. He follows her away. They are the stitches in the fabric of life. This video observation is at the very core of what interests me. The story appears, is manifest and revealed almost without an edit. I call them reallife moovies.
The Way the West(ern) was Done ( DVD, 1969, 10 min.) Not available.
Andy Warhol, Paul Morrissey, Viva, Taylor Meade, John Chamberlain (the sculptor) and many of the "Beautiful People" who associated with Warhol, made a western moovie called "Lonesome Cowboys," in Tucson, Arizona during the sixties. The Holt family's assignment was to provide limousine service for the cast and crew as they went from the set at Old Tucson, to a press conference, and to another set in the Santa Catalina foothills where they shot a rambling tale of country boys beguiled by a beautiful woman (Viva) and their associated conflicts with her nurse (Taylor Meade) and among themselves.
This short document of their efforts, and a fictionalized version of the movie genre they were emulating, presents a terse picture of life in the parking lane. It is full of sight gags and in jokes, comparisons between the convoluted and the direct. For Holt, the experience demonstrated the essential genius of Warhol, which was to set up a situation, populate it with interesting people, and then stand back and let it happen, while he observed the results.
Film and video making is an act of connection. Holt tries to get into the spirit of something that is happening, and capture the feeling of the event; its moods, its rhythms, the individuals that seem to drive and shape the action.
Flowers for Pete (not available)
Eldon Biggers dirge is sung and played by Terry Allen to honor Peter Voulkos in one of Pete's last acts; making clay look like art.
Peter Voulkos lived a life of direct involvement with whatever medium he touched. "If you can't bring me flowers while I'm living, then please don't grow them when I'm gone" summarizes his perception of where his creative head space resides. Pete died a few months after this video was shot. He basically dropped dead face down in his art material of choice, stoneware clay, as he was approaching 80 years old. The time for bringing flowers for Pete was over. They're no good to him if he cannot enjoy them.
Grow flowers for yourself and take them to your friends while they are living. Find your center, that place where you feel comfortable and real. Live in that moment and do not hold back or manipulate for an outcome that may never happen. Reality is here and now. Every mark is the last, but the next one might be the best you ever made.
Videos Online
Regardless, a short video (13 mb) by Martin Holt, Montana Art Works, featuring Helena jazz-poetry ensemble States of Matter interacting with Richard Swanson's Regardless sculptures. Video © 2006 Martin Holt, Montana Art Works; performance © 2006 States of Matter, QuickTime required. (From Drumlummon Institute)
