Performed by Lary 7, Bradley Eros, Rachael Guma, Joel Schlemowitz

In 1922 at the home of Vassily Kandinsky, a then 25-year-old artist and student Kurt Schwerdtfeger debuted his “Reflektorishe Farblichtspiele (Reflecting Color-Light-Play)”, which in recent years has received wider recognition as a groundbreaking work of the Bauhaus movement and of 20th century film and sculpture. The piece consisting of several movements utilizes a large hand-built cube projection apparatus in which performers activate cardboard shapes and a switchboard of colored lights to form a complex, abstract light play appearing on its screen surface.

British moving image pioneer Malcolm Le Grice revisits two of his early performative works for the launch of Dreamlands: Expanded. In the rarely seen “Principles of Cinematography” (1973) Le Grice reads from Leslie J. Wheeler’s 1953 book of the same name to the accompaniment of projection of clear 16mm film leader. Le Grice also performs his iconic “Horror Film 1” for triple 16mm projection, employing his own body in a shadow play with the superimposed streams of colored light. First performed in 1971, the work was described at the time by Jonas Mekas as “one of his most simple, most classical, and also most ecstatic pieces”.

“I don't want to put any labels on my films… I never impose on you; you need to find what you have to find.” – Storm De Hirsch

Microscope Gallery is extremely pleased to present a rare screening of three films by seminal artist Storm de Hirsch, filmmaker, poet, painter, and a co-founder of The Film-maker's Cooperative in New York in 1961. Despite her extensive presence and influence in the avant-garde film scene of New York in the 1960s, De Hirsch's work and history has largely remained obscure, especially since her death in 2000. De Hirsch's pioneering films often involve direct scratching, coloring, etching, painting on film and animation applied to imagery shot in everyday life.

Microscope is very pleased to welcome London-based artist and curator Simon Payne to the gallery for the first time with a program of moving image works from the United Kingdom by Maria Anastassiou, Nick Collins, Nicky Hamlyn, Neil Henderson, Jamie Jenkinson, Jennifer Nightingale, Simon Payne, Karolina Raczynski, and Guy Sherwin, most of which are screening in New