Grover's Aurora Picture Show is a one-woman microcinema, housed in a former church in downtown Houston. As a venue, the Aurora provides a regular home to the traditionally underrepresented, creative stepchildren of the art world — film and video artists. In just a few years, the operation has flourished, dually establishing itself as an integral part of Houston's burgeoning art scene, and helping along the general public's categorical acceptance of new media as art in a formal sense. Culled from more than 600 hours of short film and video archived from live shows at the Aurora, the "Best of" program offers a comprehensive glimpse into a vast reflecting pool of international talent.
Grovers' unfettered curatorial criteria dictated that each entry had to be less than 10 minutes in length, produced by an individual rather than a studio, and reflect an innovative approach to process, regardless of format. The resultant roster is artfully idiosyncratic, ranging from archival classics such as Sonic Youth's Piano Piece #13 (For Nam June Paik) to utterly new media applications including Austin filmmaker Bob Sabiston's animated documentary Snack and Drink. Sabiston is best known for his groundbreaking work as the animation director for Richard Linklater's recent feature film Waking Life.
With innovation as the only creatively dictatorial curatorial aesthetic from the get-go, the Aurora is consistently able to present work of authentic quality — no painfully amateurish student crap, overly didactic yet half-baked political rants, or touchy-feely "I'm a misunderstood teenage lesbian" mock afterschool specials. Anyone interested in film, video, and dare I say (gulp) contemporary art should give this a gander. And yes, the ONE9ZERO6 Gallery is climate controlled.
Best of Aurora Picture Show: Volume One Program includes:
One-Eyed Bum, 1975, Andy Mann, 6:10
Piano Piece #13 (For Nam June Paik), 1999, Sonic Youth, 4:25
Fax Attack, 1992, Eric Saks, 3:00
Suggested Photo Spots, 1996, Melinda Stone, 10:00
Cinderella, 2002, Eileen Maxson, 3:00
Web Dreamer, Erik Adigard, 1998, 2:00 (Editor: Kevin Hunsaker)
Snack and Drink, 1999, Bob Sabiston, 3:30
La Tombola, Ximena Cuevas, 2001, 7:00
Safe Keeping, 2002, Jenny Stark, 3:00
The Morphology of Desire, Robert Arnold, 1998, 6:00
Over Above, 2001, Art Jones, 3:54
Wüstenspringmaus, 2002, Jim Finn, 2:30
The Best of Aurora Picture Show 2002
9pm
Saturday, August 17
$5
ONE9ZERO6 Gallery
1906 S. Flores
227-5718
