Hank Bull, The Time Dilation Machine | 1971-1975 | 60min | Super 8 and 16mm | Canada
The Time Dilation Machine was a device for traveling through the seven dimensions of time and space, devised by HP (Hank Bull and Patrick Ready) in 1975. Constructed inside an old steamer trunk, it employed mirrors, tinfoil and hanging photo-puppets to trigger teleportation, and was accessed by a peephole in one end.
Similar technology, found buried in a cardboard box of 8mm films, takes us back to a time before film and video, when a group of Vancouver pataphysicians made investigations into transmutation and altered consciousness. All that remains of their research today is a collection of filmic fragments.
Bull and Ready present live narration and musical accompaniment to a collection of Bull’s unedited 8mm and 16mm reels, Spadina Special (1971), Helen and Monica (1972), Swing (1974, with Kate Craig), HP Movie (1975, with Patrick Ready), Rembrandt (and Goya) (1977, with Patrick Ready and Kate Craig), How to Make Good Whisky (1977, with Patrick Ready), and The HP Sedan Bottle (1975, with Patrick Ready, Byron Black and Randy Gledhill).
Offsite Presentation by at the 1131 Howe St. Monday June 27 7:30pm
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Hank Bull is an artist born in Calgary, Alberta, in 1949. In 1973 he moved to Vancouver to join the Western Front. There his practice expanded into performance, video, radio and telecommunications art. His work is represented in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada and the New York Museum of Modern Art, and was included in the Venice Biennale 1986, Dokumenta 9 1987, and Ars Electronica 1989. In 1999 he co-founded the Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art (Centre A), where he served as executive director until 2010.
