COME AGAIN! Thursday, September 10 at 7:30 pm Little Berlin will screen Andrew Brehm’s “Landman and the Thunderbird” in its entirety. This is a great opportunity to witness the film that inspired the performance on our big screen, er, big wall.
Saturday night was show time, and the gallery goers at Little Berlin were asked, like it or not, to participate in a performance organized by artist Andrew Brehm. The set of “Landman and the Thunderbird”, created for the site in North Philadelphia where Brehm lived for three days, had been extracted and installed in Little Berlin’s gallery where the magic most certainly diminished off-screen. A tv monitor was installed inside the set where viewers could catch an abbreviated glimpse of Landman’s trials in his survial film, at the mercy of two characters pre-ordained by Brehm, The Goddess of Everything Good and The Director of Unfavorable Events.
The beasts which had served as a major device of evil and destruction for The Director in “Landman” entered the gallery around 9 pm, outfitted in fragrant horse hair costumes and exhibiting appropriate beast mannerisms which include but are not limited to intermittent grunting, a gnarly waddle, and an alpha disposition. They were accompanied by a tribal, electronic grind provided by Fernando Ramos that enlivened the entrance of the beasts who were tailed by a mob of needless to say, energized Fishtown children. They forged their path through the crowd and proceeded to ruin and demolish the scenery that was installed in the rear of the gallery.
The performance began as almost comical but transformed into what may be remembered as a very disruptive chain of events. The beasts destroyed the “artwork” and continued their terror by physically assaulting the artist himself and carrying Brehm and the Thunderbird away. Unlike in the film, all to witness truly became a part of the show. There was no opportunity to project one’s self onto the protagonist in this story, nor was there a chance to subtract any unwanted footage. In this setting, the beasts had the ability to challenge the audience’s comfort level and capitalize on the unpredictable. Brehm’s approach to his practice may not have changed its course forever but it did change tides on Saturday by insisting the crowd to react through a rather aggressive execution of live Beast behavior.
Tomorrow Little Berlin is pleased to screen for not the first time in Philadelphia the original film that inspired this performance, “Landman and the Thunderbird”. Come if you’ve already seen it, and definitely come if you haven’t. The movie will begin at 7:30 pm, so come before to get a seat and bring snacks if you’d like. Refreshments will be provided for a small donation.
