When I moved from Southern California to New Mexico, I picked up a flyer that read “Experiments in Film.” I was intrigued. The host was Basement Films. I did a little investigation, learning that they were an independent media collective, housed (at the time) in a basement. I paid them a visit and went to an event. I was hooked. As an admirer of experimental film (and music), I was impressed that a quality film organization called Albuquerque home.
Founded by David Nelson in 1991, Bryan Konefsky joined the organization a year later, taking the reins of the collective whose “volunteer-run micro-cinema supports experimental and under-represented forms of media-making through public screenings, performances, workshops, and lectures.”
Bryan Konefsky
Following Konefsky from a distance, I recently connected with him to discuss his recent retrospective catalogue, Ladmo, a work that includes QR codes to many of his films.
You didn’t begin in experimental film but were a painter. What drew you to film as a medium?
For a long time, I identified myself as a painter and you will see examples of those paintings in my exhibition catalogue. Back then I was living on the east coast in the 1970s/80s, and I found myself being sucked into the zeitgeist of the time which championed painting over other forms of creative expression. I enjoyed working in a Neo-Expressionist way. However, that moment of unbridled creativity in NYC was quickly swallowed by capitalist interests.
When I moved to New Mexico a friend suggested that they were more interested in the stories that surrounded my paintings, than the paintings themselves. As a result, I remembered that back in the 1970s I had been making essay films, but the equipment at the time was too expensive, so I forgot about that mode of creative expression. Now, in addition to the performative work and conceptual work, I consider my collection of cameras as my palette of cameras which I use in different ways depending on the subject I am filming.
Ladmo is a book that includes an assortment of your work, painting and film. Do you have a preference for media?
These days I tend to lean more toward the moving image arts, but I still have a soft spot for all the other modes of creative expression that I have embraced over the years. What I like about the moving image arts is its sense of temporality and urgency. The urgency manifests itself in terms of the image dies as it is born. Here I am talking about all the tiny images on a roll of 16mm film that passes through a projector 24 frames per second. Like music, there is a uniqueness to the moving image arts that I am still discovering (that sense of temporality and how it intersects with various subjects and topics). Also, unlike other forms of creative expression, there is less of a sense of “objectness” and hence the art world doesn’t get us (experimental filmmakers) and the film world ignores us, leaving room for wildly imaginative works to be made outside the constraints of the marketplace.
The catalog covers the years of 1966-2024. Have you noticed a change in attitude towards experimental film or media? Is there greater openness to non-mainstream artistic forms?
I think that depending on where you are located that sense of openness varies. The 1970s/1980s were a wildly open, inventive and inclusive time to be an artist, especially on the east coast. What I like about New Mexico is that the “serious” artists gravitate toward Santa Fe (I say that with my tongue shoved deep into my cheek) which then gives those of us working in Albuquerque much more freedom to create outside the marketplace. In terms of acceptance of non-mainstream artistic forms, I find it interesting that this year The Library of Congress chose to preserve, amongst other things, Andy Warhol’s remarkable and difficult film, Chelsea Girls.
In the catalog, a host of subjects are addressed: community, political corruption, masculinity, and urban decay. What attracts you to particular themes?
Like many artists, I respond to my environment. I can’t recall who said this, but I like the sentiment: “An artist is someone for whom nothing is ever lost.” Ideas, experiences, images all stick to us and sit dormant waiting for the right moment to be accessed and used in a creative project. All the topics you mentioned are things I am concerned with in different ways. For me, “art” is an activity that challenges the status quo (always) whereas “entertainment” bolsters that which we already know and are comfortable with. Throughout my creative life, I have always considered myself to be an amateur, if one understands amateur as having something to do with passion, whereas “professional” is more aligned with careerist ambitions. I never, ever want to be considered a professional!
To learn more about Ladmo or purchase a copy, click here: https://www.experimentsincinema.org/product-page/ladmo-bryan-konefsky-retrospective-catalogue.
Brian C. Nixon, Ph.D., is Chief Academic Officer and professor at Veritas International University in Albuquerque. As a writer, musician, and artist, his interests surround the philosophical transcendentals: truth, beauty, and goodness. You can contact Brian via his Bandcamp email address: https://briancharlesnixon.bandcamp.com
