FILM CONCERT
13 Most Beautiful… Songs for Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests was jointly commissioned by The Andy Warhol Museum and Pittsburgh Cultural Trust for the Pittsburgh International Festival of Firsts.
Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips, formerly of Luna and now performing as Dean & Britta, composed original music for a selection of Warhol’s four-minute silent film portraits, the Screen Tests. The work combines large-scale projections of the films with live music performed on stage.
Created in the 1960s, Warhol’s Screen Tests were originally used as part of the light show for the 1966 multimedia happening Exploding Plastic Inevitable, which featured the Velvet Underground. Dean & Britta’s music responds to the subtle moods and personalities captured in Warhol’s portraits, creating a dialogue between the films and live performance.
The programme features Screen Tests of Ann Buchanan, Paul America, Edie Sedgwick, Billy Name, Susan Bottomly, Dennis Hopper, Mary Woronov, Freddy Herko, Nico, Richard Rheem, Ingrid Superstar, Lou Reed and Jane Holzer.
13 Most Beautiful… Songs for Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests can be presented in a range of flexible performance formats.
Running time : 70 minutes
CREDITS
Composed and performed by Dean & Britta
Vocals, guitars: Dean Wareham
Vocals, bass: Britta Phillips
Keyboards, guitars : tbc
Drums, bass, acoustic guitar, samples: tbc
Production Design : Clear Story Creative
Lighting Designer : Rob Long
Video : Andy Warhol, Screen Tests, 16mm film, black and white, silent, 4 minutes at 16 frames per second.
Collection of The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh
Contribution The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.
©2008 The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA, a museum of Carnegie Institute. All rights reserved.
The project is jointly commissioned by The Warhol and The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust for the Pittsburgh International Festival of Firsts 2008 and was developed by The Warhol staff members :
Associate Curator for Performance : Ben Harrison
Curator of Film and Video : Geralyn Huxley
Assistant Curator of Film and Video : Greg Pierce
Live video excerpts filmed and edited by : Marie Raccaud (Mariexxme)