Lemeh42: Sightlines AC [Direct] I presents “Sightlines,” by two Italian multimedia artists who go under the collective name Lemeh42. A digital collage of video, animation and performance, their work explores classic narrative structures and eclectic storytelling—reformulating them into non-linear, spacio-temporial alter realities. Finding inspiration from science, art, figurative painting and avant-garde literature, the videos become surreal worlds with their own rules; rigid and mysterious at the same time.

Righteous Killing of a Beautiful Fly is based on a recorded performance at Lemeh42’s theater stage. Taking inspiration from the ancient Greek myth of Icarus, the work re-examines the traditional story as a profound metaphor and testament to contemporary life. In the piece a young man surrounded by feathers lies dead in his childhood room where all his unrealized memories and dreams exist forever, like him, in a perpetual state of stasis. Similar to the tragic Icarus, his ambitions are too great and too far for him to reach, destroying him in the end.

Also evolving from one of Lemeh42’s performances, Study on Human Form and Humanity #01 was filmed on location and then digitally collaged and edited. The title reflects the two aspects and processes of the work: a choreography of the positions and movements of a sleeping human body and the expression of “humanity” manifested through the written dreams that are transposed onto the body and conduct its individuals movements.

Working together since 2005, Lemeh42 have been shown extensively in international exhibitions and have been the receipients of numerous awards such as their latest one, the ICEBERG Prize (Bologna, Italy) as well as being chosen to represent Italy at the BJCEM 2009 (Skopje, Macedonia). Their work has been repeatedly selected by major international videoart festivals including the Cyprus Short Film Festival, where they received the honor of “Best Experimental Editino” for their work Flor de la Alhambra and the New Media Art Biennale, (Madeira, Portugal) where they also were awarded first prize for their work Study on Human Form and Humanity #01.

Nico Vassilakis: 5IVE SEQUENCES 5IVE SEQUENCES, a visual poem by Nico Vassilakis is being exhibited in AC [Chapel] as an installation for the first time since its publication. Enlarged in scale from its original chapbook size and offering a rare opportunity to collectively interact with the piece in a public forum, 5IVE SEQUENCES explores the inherent structure and transience of language as a medium.

In creating 5IVE SEQUENCES, Vassilakis focused on the individual shapes and constructions of letters within words, referring to it as a kind of “hyper-staring” that allowed him to transform them into images and sculptural forms, free of the bonds of syntax or semantics. For Vassilakis, visual poetry is a tangential literature through which the alphabet is deconstructed into dislocations of meaning and/or the revisioning of letters—changing the viewers perception and experience of them. Within his work, letters or fragments of letters and the environment in which they are placed, become the medium for his compositions. 5IVE SEQUENCES explores a periodic table of language through individual letterforms, exposing and disjointing their order to lose their cohesion, opening up new interpretations and meanings.

Nico Vassilakis is a multimedia artist, poet and writer. He is currently the curator for the Subtext Reading Series in Seattle. His visual poetry videos have been shown worldwide at festivals and exhibitions of innovative language arts. Vassilakis’ writings have appeared in numerous magazines, including: Ribot, Caliban, Aufgabe, Chain, Talisman, Central Park and Golden Handcuffs Review. His latest publications are TEXT LOSES TIME and most recently a Vispo essay “staReduction,” from BookThug Publishers (Toronto, Canada).

Stephen Day and Sibylle Peretti: Suicide Notes On view in AC [Direct] II is Stephen Paul Day and Sibylle Peretti’s mixed-media installation Suicide Notes. This ephemeral, poignant piece is composed of fifty-four text and image/drawing based collages directly onto everyday, white napkins. The impetus behind Suicide Notes is Day and Peretti’s found drawings of a young artist that committed suicide. Each individual napkin records the anonymous artist’s search for a conclusive narrative within his/her existence. Simple and accessible, the notes are seemingly a quest towards leaving a poetic yet nevertheless profound eulogy from a life never fully realized.

Inventing projects between populist formats and satire, Day and Peretti’s work encompasses an extensive range of mediums and methodologies. Often centered on historical figures, moments, documents and artifacts, much of their work creates narratives involving universal, archetypal messages that emphasize both human strength and fragility.

Based in New Orleans and Cologne, Germany, American artist Stephen Paul Day and German artist Sibylle Peretti have collaborated under the name Club S & S since 2000. Both individually and as collaborators they have shown extensively in international and national institutions, foundations, museums and biennials. They have been awarded multiple residencies throughout Europe and the US where their work is also part of permanent public collections in Germany and New York. Most recently they exhibited in the first biennial of New Orleans, Prospect.1. For additional information about the artists please contact AC [Institute Direct Chapel] at [email protected]