Steel Bridge Portland. photo: portlandground.com
Which Portland bridge strikes you as most worthy of an abstract film by sculptor Richard Serra? The evidence — Serra’s affinity for CorTen (fun fact: he worked in a steel mill as a young man while studying literature), the film’s title including the word “railroad” – certainly points to our favorite Portland bridge. Tonight see Serra’s silent film Railroad Turnbridge which was shot right here in Portland in 1975-76. Thanks to Cinema Project Serra’s film screens along with two by earth artists Robert Smithson (Spiral Jetty) and Nancy Holt. Smithson’s is a companion piece to his “Spiral Jetty” in the Great Salt Lake while Holt’s Sun Tunnels documents her Utah dessert project of the same name. The best part about it is that the films screen outdoors in a makeshift drive-in on the Eastside.
It was after seeing a couple of films by Yvonne Rainer, one in which a woman in white measures a line on a white wall, and another, Hand Movie, as well as Warhol’s Chelsea Girls that Serra conceived of film as being open to him as a medium. He made a number of films in that era, some in collaboration with Holt others.
Cinema Project’s Smithson, Serra & Holt– at the Drive-In is tonight, June 2 at Artemisia Garden & Gallery (110 SE 28th Avenue Portland). Come before dusk as brilliant Portland-based improvising musician, Jean-Paul Jenkins is the pre-film musical guest beginning at 8 PM with the films starting at 9 PM.
WHAT TO DO NOW?