Bruce McClure doesn’t make films, he performs them. Most movies are frozen on celluloid or written on videotape. McClure’s don’t exist until he creates them in the theater. Twirling knobs, flipping switches, and adjusting lenses, he coaxes a bank of whirring projectors into producing images impossible to record: moire patterns dancing in mid-air, a glowing orb rising from the surface of the screen, prismatic bursts flashing about the room. Based in Williamsburg, McClure is an architect by training. Since then, he’s encountered remarkable success, appearing in the 2002 and 2004 Whitney Biennial, and presenting film performances across the United States and internationally, including in Canada, Scotland, Italy, Japan, and Latvia.
Bruce McClure is well known on the international experimental film circuit for his unique projector performances that utilize film loops & modified 16mm projectors. But there is also an equally innovative sound element to his work and he has been embraced by the experimental music community as well. Bruce performed at the Chocolate Monk curated Colour Out of Space festival in 2008 and was chosen as an opening act for Throbbing Gristle's reunion tour in the spring of 2009. During McClure's performances the optical sound signals from each projector are fed through banks of guitar pedals, manipulated live, and played at extremely high volumes through the p.a. system. The different loops phase in and out of each other resulting in what could be described as a power electronics version of the early tape experiments of Steve Reich and Terry Riley, while sparser sections have an off-kilter minimal techno feel reminiscent of Plastikman and the early works of Thomas Brinkmann.
Entry free for FAMU students.
