Artists Statement

June 11-16, Auditorium, Centre for Contemporary Art Barcelona. Public Event.

Programme in collaboration with Sónar.

Keywords: cinema typography, kinetic typography, experimental animation, video collage, sound collage

Lavoro Macchinine is a collaboration between Alexis Grey Hildreth (moving image) and Ora Cogan (sound) that deconstructs the opening credits and reimagines the musical overture in the title sequence from the Italian period drama Il Gattopardo (1963).

Lavoro Macchinine occults the film’s original static text with a mercurial, kinetic typography, built from the very glyphs it is at pains to obfuscate. Through gestation, approximation, replication, and assimilation; Lavoro Macchinine discovers its own alien properties of form and behaviour, while simultaneously exploring the boundaries of its cinematic environment.

The living word produced by Lavoro Macchinine is propelled and propagated by a hunger for and the digestion of, Il Gatopardo‘s diegetic space. It longs to hide within it; to become part of it. The building blocks of language are hijacked: letterforms bifurcate in an imitation of manor gates, logographs elongate into fragile towers, conveyor belts composed of graphemes disseminate across the laneway, ligatures roll out of ideograms to scrutinize Roman busts, alien marginalia breach the balustrade, cedilla scrupulously scale the villa walls, extraterrestrial dingbats lodge themselves into the ruins of a world that no longer exists, ogonek laden emissaries probe the cinemascape in order to become it; to become us. https://gozertoast.com

• Alexis Grey Hildreth is a multi-disciplinary artist based on the West Coast of Canada. In 2014 he received a BFA from Emily Carr University of Art and Design and in 2017 completed an MFA at the University of Waterloo. Alexis’ work revolves around boundaries, barriers, and thresholds. He is invested in the relationship between internal and external geography, the balance of terror and awe, and in tracking the movement of consciousness through cultural artifacts. Alexis has held a plethora of jobs; from innkeeper to nightwatchmen, from shepherd to security guard, from grocer to gardener, from plowman to picture framer. He is curious about the ways in which the creative imagination is both enlightened and impoverished by popular culture.
• Ora Cogan is a multi-disciplinary artist and singer-songwriter based on the West Coast of Canada. She is known for her singular voice and cinematic compositions. Cogan has released seven albums to date while collaborating with a multitude of artists and touring extensively throughout Europe and North America. She has performed at Le Guess Who Festival in the Netherlands, Pickathon Festival in Portland, Oregon and has shared the stage with the likes of Grouper, Mazzy Star and Lido Pimienta. Her new album Bells in the Ruins was released July 13, 2020 on Prism Tongue Records.