LOCAL Houston | The City Guide JUNE 2015 | Page 32

Local June_FinalEDITED.qxp_002houston 5/21/15 7:24 PM Page 32

GISH AT THE MOVIES

TEXAS IS THE STAR IN THREE TRILOGIES
EXPLORING THE SOCIAL AND PHYSICAL SITES OF CINEMA THROUGH FILM

MOVIE MOUNTAIN (MÉLIÈS) 2011

GRAND PARIS TEXAS 2009
GIANT 2014

SUNRISE FILMSET SUNSET 2012

We are often introduced to faraway places
through films, and a new exhibition at the
BLAFFER ART MUSEUM (www.blafferartmuseum.org),
Sound Speed Marker, drills down on that idea
while also reflecting on the influence of cinema
itself on the human psyche. The internationally
touring exhibition showcases a trilogy of video
installations by the renowned Swiss-American
artist duo, Teresa Hubbard and Alexander
Birchler. Organized by Ballroom Marfa, where
the exhibition premiered in 2014 before traveling to the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin,
Sound Speed Marker will be on view at the
Blaffer through September 5.
The European-born artists draw upon the impact
of place in Texas-based films that created the
cowboy stereotypes that are both true and false,
as borne out in interviews with locals in two of
the films. Their 2009 film Grand Paris Texas
focuses on the decayed Grand movie theater
through the lens of their camera and the memories of the charming inhabitants of that small
town, both typical Texas folk and deep philosophers. The slow-paced film takes in all aspects of
Paris, from the mundane to the melancholy to the
historic, while connecting three seminal movies
of the Southwest: Wim Wenders’ Paris, Texas
(1984), Bruce Beresford’s Tender Mercies
(1983) and King Baggot’s classic 1925 silent
film, Tumbleweeds, which, in a strange twist,
was recorded over the ending of the town’s last
remaining copy of Paris, Texas.

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In Movie Mountain (Méliès) (2011), Hubbard/
Birchler explore the site of a mountain in the
Chihuahuan Desert near the town of Sierra
Blanca. As inGrand Paris Texas, there are interviews with locals that flavor their exploration of
site with rich stories from people such as a scriptwriting cowboy and residents whose relatives
performed in an original silent picture filmed at
the mountain. The project also encounters a possible link between Movie Mountain and Gaston
Méliès, the brother of famous filmmaker George
Méliès. Giant (2014) again interweaves life and
decay, this time filming on a movie set built outside of Marfa – the Reata mansion from the iconic 1956 Warner Bros. film of the same name.
Hubbard/Birchler explore the skeletal remains of
the set as seasons change, day turns to night and
parts of the structure swing and fall off.
Hubbard’s sculpture, “Missing Truffaut,” will be
displayed in the Museum’s courtyard. The ordinary wooden lamppost has a handmade sign
about a lost cat named Truffaut, a nod to the
avant-garde filmmaker that neatly propels the
show’s exploration of film forward in time.

By Sarah Gish
Photography by Frederik Nilsen

Courtesy: Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York and Lora Reynolds Gallery, Austin