Carving the Ball of Sound: Film and Video with Leighton Pierce

For more than 30 years, Leighton Pierce has explored memory and perception in a series of stunningly shot, impressionistic short films and videos that exploit cinematic space and time and expand the interplay between sound and image. Pierce executes all aspects of his works himself including the conception, cinematography, editing, and sound design and composition. Tonight he will screen old and new works, including Glass (1998), Wood (2000), White Ash (2014), and new works in progress.

Program includes:

Glass, 1998, 7 min.
Wood, 2000, 7 min.
The Back Steps, 2001, 5 min.
Water Seeking Its Level, 2002, 6 min.
Retrograde Premonition, 2010, 5 min.
White Ash, 2014, 30 min.
works in progress, 2016, ~15 min.

(1998– 2016, 16mm and digital video, 60 min.)

Leighton Pierce uses film, video, and sound to create experiences in transformative time. He creates multi-channel site-specific installations as well as single channel works that have been exhibited in major art museums and film festivals throughout the world including the Whitney Bienniale, New York, Ann Arbor, and Rotterdam Film Festivals, the Exploratorium in San Francisco, and Montreal Museé d’art contemporaine. Retrospectives of his works have appeared at Lincoln Center, the Cinémathèque française, Pompidou Center in Paris, and the Lisbon Biennale. Pierce has received fellowships from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Creative Capital. Pierce has been head of the Program in Film and Video Production at the University of Iowa and chair of the Film/Video Department and acting dean of the School of Art and Design at Pratt Institute. Pierce is currently Dean of the School of Film/Video at CalArts.