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''Exploding. Plastic. Inevitable.'' (often abbreviated as "E.P.I.") was instigated by Andy Warhol . It was a multi-screen Multimedia environment and the most advanced of his multi-screen works and largely organised by his right hand man, Paul Morrissey . The name was derived by Morrissey through a process of Free Association as he read aloud the Liner Notes to '' Bringing It All Back Home '', the 1965 Album by Bob Dylan . Warhol, although primarily known as a painter, was also a sculptor, a graphic artist, a filmmaker, a music producer, an author, and a publisher. The scope of his creative activity was extraordinary – and it touched upon the entire range of the era’s popular culture. Warhol’s use and understanding of media was far more advanced than any artist of his time. He also showed a very astute understanding of the emerging post-modern culture at a very early stage in its development. He manifested this most clearly in the creation of his multi-screen multi-media environment entitled “the Exploding Plastic Inevitable”. To create the “EPI”, Warhol collaborated with some of the most creative people in their fields. In music, he collaborated with the Velvet Underground , which was composed of some of the most advanced rock musicians of the time, including Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison, Mo Tucker, and the singer/actress Nico . Once adjusted to the initial sonic blast of the Velvet Underground, the listener at the Dom could hear the undertones of Rhythm and Blues, improvisations of free jazz as well as the musical avant-garde and the mystical drone of LaMonte Young. CONCEPTION It was in November, 1965, after completing several films in the dual-screen format, that Warhol undertook to create his first multi-screened multimedia environment for the Expanded Cinema Festival at the Filmmakers Cinematheque in New York. He utilized his films and still images together with the music of The Velvet Underground, composed by Lou Reed and John Cale. The next phase in the development of Warhol’s multi-screen multimedia art was the event called UpTight. It was also the official debut for the Velvet Underground and Nico. Warhol was invited to speak to the New York Society For Clinical Psychiatry at its annual black tie banquet on January 10, 1966. When asked about his choice to invite Warhol, Dr. Campbell rhetorically asked: “How can you be immune to art and the creative process? Surely you’re aware of the barely visible line between genius and madness?” Not being a public speaker, Warhol decided his presentation would consist of the screening of his films together with the music of the Velvet Underground and Nico. It was called UpTight. The next manifestation of the UpTight series took place February 8-13, 1966 at The Film-makers' Cinematheque. It consisted of the double-screen projection of Warhol's film, More Milk, Yvette together with The Velvet Underground, followed by a double-screen showing of his dual-screen film Lupe. These were accompanied by a live appearance of The Velvet Underground and Nico, Edie Sedgwick, Gerard Malanga and Barbara Rubin. Warhol then recruited the professional film editor, Danny Williams, who created the light environment for “EPI”. Most of the key people at The Factory were also involved, including Paul Morrissey as show coordinator and Gerard Malanga, who coordinated the dance performances which included, at various times, Mary Woronov, Ingrid Superstar, International Velvet, and Eric Emerson. Warhol also made extensive use of his experimental films in the “EPI”, such as Vinyl. The next evolution of the multi-screen show was in March, 1966 and was called “The Erupting Plastic Inevitable.” It was presented at Rutgers University and at the University of Michigan Film Festival in Ann Arbor, where it was enthusiastically received. RUN OF THE SHOW It was in April 1966 that the first manifestation of the Exploding Plastic Inevitable took place at “The Dom” in New York City. The Exploding Plastic Inevitable attracted many people and a great deal of publicity and media. The filmmaker Barbara Rubin and poet Allen Ginsberg were among the personalities participating, as was the well-known news anchorman Walter Cronkite, who came by to see what was happening, as did Jackie Kennedy and much of New York’s society. It became a major culture happening as news crews reported on the scene. Warhol said of this time: “We all knew something revolutionary was happening. We just felt it. Things could not look this strange and new without some barrier being broken.” In May of the same year, the E.P.I. took to the road, touring the United States and Canada . Warhol became progressively less involved, sometimes letting someone stand in and pretend to be him. The tour returned to Chicago in the mid-west in June 1966 and it was here that the filmmaker Ronald Nameth made extensive film recordings of the Exploding Plastic Inevitable every night during a one week period. It is this film material which has been utilized to create comprehensive video and print editions of the Exploding Plastic Inevitable: A multiple screen video installation environment, a single-screen video film of 22 minutes, and extensive Print Editions of imagery based on the "EPI". Information can be found at info@explodingplasticinevitable.com E.P.I. RECORDINGS Photographs Many Photographs were taken, which regularly appear in Velvet Underground-related articles and books. The back cover photograph on the Velvet Underground's Debut Album '' The Velvet Underground And Nico '' was taken during an E.P.I. show; on the band's 1995 Box Set '' Peel Slowly And See '', three songs recorded during 1966 and 1967 E.P.I. shows are included ("Melody Laughter", "Booker T." and "Guess I'm Falling in Love"). An extensive edition of prints based directly on "EPI" imagery has been made by the photographer and filmmaker Ronald Nameth. Film During one week of live performances of the EPI in Chicago, in June, 1966, the film-maker Ronald Nameth worked every night filming, and made a comprehensive recording of the event. The film is a multiple level superimposition of imagery that sometimes reaches a depth of five layers. The film works extensively with the experience of time through its changing rhythms of motion. This film material is now the only extensive motion picture document of the EPI. Nameth created several works from this recorded material to present a complete experience of the "EPI", making a single screen projection as well as a 4-screen video installation that re-creates the spatial experience and environment of the EPI. These extended versions have a running time of 22 minutes, while an earlier short version had 12 minutes of imagery. Nameth also created a limited edition of prints based on the "EPI" imagery. Review of the "E.P.I." Film In his book “Expanded Cinema” film writer and critic Gene Youngblood commented on his experience of the film, saying: “Andy Warhol’s….sensorium, the Exploding Plastic Inevitable, was, while it lasted, the most unique and effective discotheque environment prior to the Fillmore/Electric Circus era, and it is safe to say that the EPI has never been equaled. Similarly, Ronald Nameth’s cinematic homage to the EPI stands as a paragon of excellence in the kinetic rock-show genre.” Youngblood continues: “Nameth managed to transform his film into something far more than a mere record of an event. Like Warhol’s show, Nameth’s EPI is an experience, not an idea. In fact, the ethos of the entire pop life-style seems to be synthesized in Nameth’s dazzling kinesthetic master-piece. Here, form and content are virtually synonymous, and there is no misunderstanding what we see.” It’s as though the film itself has exploded and reassembled in a jumble of shards and prisms. Gerard Malanga and Ingrid Superstar dance frenetically to the music of the Velvet Underground (Heroin, European Son, and a quasi-East Indian composition), while their ghost images writhe in Warhol’s Vinyl projected on a screen behind. There is a spectacular sense of frantic uncontrollable energy, communicated almost entirely by Nameth’s exquisite manipulation of the medium.” “EPI was photographed on color and black–and-white stock during one week of performances by Warhol’s troupe. Because the environment was dark and because of the flash-cycle of the strobe lights, Nameth shot at eight frames per second and printed the footage at the regular twenty-four fps. In addition, he developed a mathematical curve for repeated frames and super-impositions, so that the result is an eerie world of semi-slow motion against an aural background of incredible frenzy. Colors were super-imposed over black-and-white negatives and vice-versa. An extraordinary off-color grainy effect resulted from pushing the ASA rating of his color stock; thus the images often seem to loose their cohesiveness as though wrenched apart by the sheer force of the environment.” Gene Youngblood continues, saying: “Watching the film is like dancing in a strobe room: time stops, motion retards, the body seems separated from the mind. The screen bleeds onto the walls, the seats. Flak bursts of fiery color explode with slow fury. Staccato strobe guns stitch galaxies of silverfish over slow motion, stop-motion close-ups of the dancers’ dazed ecstatic faces.“ “Nameth does to cinema what the Beatles do with music: his film is dense, compact, yet somehow fluid and light. It is extremely heavy, extremely fast, yet airy and poetic, a mosaic, a tapestry, a mandala that sucks you into its whirling maelstrom.” “Using essentially graphic materials, Nameth rises above a mere graphic exercise: he makes kinetic empathy a new kind of poetry.” “The most striking aspect of Nameth’s work is his use of the freeze-frame to generate a sense of timelessness. Stop-motion is literally the death of the image: we are instantly cut off from the illusion of cinematic life – the immediacy of motion – and the image suddenly is relegated to the motionless past, leaving in its place a pervading aura of melancholy. Chris Marker’s La Jeté, Peter Goldman’s Echoes of Silence, and Trauffaut’s 400 Blows are memorable for the kind of stop-frame work that Nameth raises to quintessential beauty.” "The final shots of Gerard Malanga tossing his head in slow motion and freezing in several positions create a ghostlike atmosphere, a timeless and ethereal mood that lingers and haunts long after the images fade. “ The original film and newly edited extended version are available at {Link without Title} . Songs included are "European Son (Studio)", "It Was A Pleasure Then (Studio, recorded by Nico ), and "Venus In Furs (Live version)" SIGNIFICANCE The Exploding Plastic Inevitable is the apex of Warhol’s multimedia art– which utilize his films, his factory collaborators, the music of the Velvet Underground and Nico, and the dance performances of Gerard Malanga and others. More importantly, “EPI” reflects Warhol’s astute ability to powerfully reveal the emerging post-modern culture. “The Exploding Plastic Inevitable, generated during the 1960’s, has often been cited as the pioneering multimedia experience. Audiences were bombarded with floor to ceiling projections of Warhol films such as Vinyl. At center stage, the Velvet underground were transported with Warhol-directed lighting effects. Images filled the show, that were as disturbing and abrasive as Lou Reed’s songs. Collaboration between artists and musicians had never before, or since, proved so influential despite its short life span."-Kate Butlers "The…Exploding Plastic Inevitable remains as the strongest and most developed example of intermedia art. Although (other) productions… have since achieved greater technical dexterity on a visual plane, no one has yet managed to communicate a guiding spirit through the complex form as well as Warhol and the Underground.”-Branden W. Joseph, Art historian, Univ of California |
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