Richard H. Alpert V. 2
Richard H. Alpert is a filmmaker and installation artist who has exhibited across the United States, particularly in California as well as internationally in South Korea and France. Notable solo exhibitions include features at the San Francisco Art Institute, Shirley Cerf Gallery and La Mamelle Art Center in San Francisco, as well as the Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art. His most recent collective shows include Museum of Sonoma County in Santa Rosa, Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, Museum of Northern California in Chico, and Museum of Sonoma County in Santa Rosa. Richard is a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship grant recipient and has been published by Artforum as well as a previous curatorial essay by Aedra FIne Arts.
The motion pictures of Richard H. Alpert blur the line between video art and arthouse films. Although the features contain the short length and repetition typically seen in video art, there remains a distinct conceptual narrative as one would find in arthouse films. Although Richard works in a variety of artforms, he has notably been making films since 1967. There remains a precise capturing of industrial practices and scenery which invoke allegories towards several concepts alluding to consciousness, the dichotomy of illusion and reality, and poetic anticipation. But perhaps even beyond these notions, there remains a great sense of questioning of contemporary placement and identity amongst the machinations and conduits of machines and industrialization.
Arguably, Richard’s greatest films are Ball on Track and Dutch Lock as these particular pieces reflect the complexities of urbanization and their direct correlation to our sense of self. For Richard, Dutch Lock (pictured above) remains an allegory for sexual tension and anticipation, for others the work could be seen as the playful process of moving a ship past a canal signifying the achievement modern technology brings to modes of transport. The ship could be carrying anything, from vital medical supplies to food to feed the hungry. Her mysterious cargo and inclination to move past the narrow canal invokes a sense of importance, since the mechanical process to allow the ship to pass transit seems so intricate and methodical.
Ball on Track (pictured above) on the other hand stuns with a combination of audio and flashing visuals. The deep screeching of the trolley passing by the street, emanating a bright orange light, creates a stunning effect with the cropping of the camera. We are given a foreshadowing of the unfolding events by the howling scream of the trolley as we watch a man walk down the sloped street in the distance. Suddenly the trolley appears and flashes a signal as if to induce hypnosis, then ferries away into the distance. The film ends with an ominous following of the train track flowing into the horizon.
Richard H. Alpert creates dynamic films which cause the viewer to pause and contemplate our industrial surroundings and what technology and transportation mean to our individual and collective goals. From capturing the toiling scenes of a factory to ships, trains, and portraying the methodical and machine-like process of creating Richard’s installations, these films invoke the viewer to question the purpose of mechanical function and how such a process relates to our psyche and impulses. These cerebral works reveal societal concepts beyond their initial surface through the capturing of careful timing, stunning audio, and hypnotic visuals.
