Radical
DIY film-maker, maverick artist and Brighton cultural institution
Jeff Keen died on 21st June.
To
be honest there isn't much to add to the
Guardian obituary by William Fowler, who apparently
collaborated with him.
“Keen's
interest in myth, surrealism and romantic painting complemented his
love of movies and comics, and he continually absorbed new references
into his work... [which] was often more appreciated by skaters and
punks than followers of the canonical avant garde. The extreme, short
edits in his playful, visceral films have helped to keep his work
fresh and alive; they still zap with energy decades later.”
It's
not pop art in the Lichtenstein sense of isolating images from pop
culture and making them contemplative... there's an engagement
with pop culture, even if sometimes a critical one. There's probably
a parallel between his work and William Burroughs, or for that matter
noise bands such as Lightning Bolt.
Fowler's
also correct to explain Keen's work as “expanded cinema”, with
multiple projections fusing with live performance or, in one
memorable performance at the Phoenix gallery, drawing on the screen
while the film was still being shown, like he couldn't keep his hands
still any longer. As
only said recently of a Sunn 0))) gig, the experience is
unYoutubeable. Though even seeing one of his films you feel like the
images are bursting through, not trapped within the frame.
As
is said in a thought balloon clipped from a comic which adorns the home page of his website
“I... I feel like I'm surging with power!”
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