Trans Experimental, a group show of experimental film and animation by trans artists in the greater Boston area, launches at The Sidewalk Video Gallery on February 14th. The show, organized by Boston LGBTQIA+ Artist Alliance (BLAA), introduces a new artist each week. Experimental film deals with perception and abstraction and uses non-commercial techniques including photochemical abstraction, hand-painted animation, digital glitch work, and found footage collage. In this show, trans artists explore and find solace in practices of experimental film that are based on the re-collage, the tactical, the degradation, and the reclamation. Each work lends itself to reflection on the trans body and identity.

Exhibition Schedule

Week 1: February 14–20 Gabby Sumney (pronouns: any) Sumney created a meditation of aging with a chronic illness using a year of 16mm footage and hand-painted film.

Week 2: February 21–27 Gina Kamenstky (she/her) As a self-portrait, the artist videoed herself doing slapstick “stunts” and then distorted and rotoscoped over the video onto 70mm film. Says Kamenstky, “It’s a celebration of loving my trans body and looking forward to turning 60.”

Week 3: February 28–March 6 Hogan Seidel (pronouns: they/them) Using 16mm black & white film, direct animation, and analog and digital layering, the artist has an exchange between their body, the natural world, and the myth of the trans body. Says Seidel, “In this collage of image and chemistry, I reach out to the divine.”

Week 4: March 7–13 Edward Perkins (pronouns: they/them) Hand scratched and tinted with sharpies, one of Perkins’ films uses rapid cutting to create a space for liberated gender expression. Another, shot on 16mm, double-exposed and hand processed, is a collaborative film that celebrates femme identity.

Week 5: March 14–20 Malic Amalya (pronouns: he/him) Shot at sites of nuclear development, detonation, industry, tourism, and activism, Amalya examines the ways that ideologies of war structure landscapes, community rituals, cinematic technology, entomology, pandemic management, and even notions of LGBTQ liberation.

Weeks 6, 7, 8: Artists and titles to be announced

ABOUT THE SIDEWALK VIDEO GALLERY
Fountain Street has launched “The Sidewalk Video Gallery,” a public viewing gallery for video and other digital media art. Exhibitions of short, silent, experimental work will be displayed on two 50” monitors facing out from gallery windows at sidewalk level. The programming is designed to promote diversity and include a broad array of artists, styles, thematic content, and levels of experience. Partnerships with artists and curators, local educational and community-focused organizations, as well as Fountain Street Gallery artists round out the exhibition schedule.