$10 / Free for Aurora Members
Screening followed by a conversation between Christopher Harris and Jamal Cyrus
Through the manipulation of archival materials and the purposeful and responsive use of light, shadow and sound, Christopher Harris translates the often misrepresented and misremembered facets of the African American experience into the language of film. Harris will be here in person to introduce a selection of his short, experimental films created between between 2004 and 2020, presented both digitally and on 16mm film. Immediately following the screening, there will be a brief discussion about the work with Harris and Houston-based artist Jamal Cyrus.
Christopher Harris
Born in Saint Louis, MO, Harris' films and video installations read African American historiography through the poetics and aesthetics of experimental cinema. His work employs manually and photo-chemically altered appropriated moving images, staged reenactments of archival artifacts and interrogations of documentary conventions. He has exhibited his award winning, experimental films widely at venues throughout North America and Europe, including the Gene Siskel Film Center, Wexner Center for the Arts, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Ann Arbor Film Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam, and Vienna International Film Festival, among many others. Harris is the recipient of Creative Capital grant and a Alpert/MacDowell Fellowship. He lives and works in Iowa City, IA.
Jamal Cyrus
Houston-based visual artist Jamal Cyrus will be in conversation with Christopher Harris following the screening. Cyrus' work examines forgotten, ignored, or fragmentary accounts of Black American culture. He has participated in numerous national and international group exhibitions, including at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL; ICA Philadelphia; African American Museum, Philadelphia; The Studio Museum in Harlem; New York; the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston; and the New Museum, New York. His first museum survey, Jamal Cyrus: The End of My Beginning, was presented at the University of Houston Blaffer Art Museum in 2021 and the ICA in Los Angeles this spring. His solo exhibition FOCUS: Jamal Cyrus is currently on view at The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth through June 26, 2022.