For Immediate Release Contact: Carol O’Sullivan

Dec. 15, 2006 412-681-5449

Filmmakers Announce New Gallery Exhibits

(Pittsburgh, PA) – Filmmakers Galleries present two new shows by Pittsburgh-based artists in January. They are both on view from January 12 through February 25, 2007. Waste to Energy is an installation by Jesse Jamaica McLean that includes video, sculpture and site-specific painting. Running concurrently in the outer gallery will be Flow, a 35mm microfilm projection by Joshua Tonies. An opening reception will be held on Friday, January 12 at 7:00pm. It is free and open to the public. A gallery talk and screening with McLean and Tonies will be held on Thursday, February 22 at 7:30pm.

In Waste to Energy McLean uses ruined computer-related objects, further broken down physically, in an effort to recycle these digital products (perhaps once seen as innovative, now considered trash) into new forms. Plastic enclosures of ancient iMacs are crushed and reassembled into swirling patterns. Empty inkjet cartridges, deemed un-recyclable by their manufacturer, give life to dazzling abstract images of streaming color when exploded against a white surface.

McLean, who lives and works in Pittsburgh, is known for her award-winning film and video work. She recently exhibited at SPACE Gallery, and her film Celebrations toured nationally with the Black Maria Film Festival. She earned her BA from Oberlin College.

Flow is a two-channel 35mm color microfilm projection. It uses two microfilm viewers/projectors that play a continuous film loop of a moving landscape. This is composed of two independent layers: the ocean and the sky. With a background in time-based media, Tonies contemplated a new way of creating the experience of looking out the window of a moving train. After spending a day doing research at Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh, Tonies decided to turn his very research methods into the art itself.

“I have always been enamored with the convention of microfilm,” Tonies says. “I enjoy the way one can physically navigate the information stream of the film, rotating, panning, raising and lowering the image. I often would go and just play with the machines, and lose myself in the visual experience of manipulating the information.”

Tonies is an Ohio native who earned his BFA at the Columbus College of Art and Design. He has shown his work extensively in the region, including the annual Three Rivers Arts Festival and Modern Formations Gallery. He will also have a show at SPACE Gallery in January. He currently lives and works in Pittsburgh and is an instructor at Pittsburgh Center for the Arts.

Filmmakers Galleries are located at 477 Melwood Avenue, North Oakland. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday, noon to 5:00, and during public film screenings. Free and open to the public. For more information call 412-681-5449, or visit: www.pghfilmmakers.org

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