Random Acts of Fitness
curated by Andrea Grover, Houston
Wednesday, March 5 at the Chicago Cultural Center 8:30pm
Sunday, March 9 at Discount Cinema 3:00pm

"Put your muscle where your mouth is."   —Jack LaLanne

Random Acts of Fitness is a collection of short videos in which artists use physical or heroic acts to modify a form, or state of being. Some use literal exercises with political or social purpose; others use storytelling or visual metaphor to make us reconsider the everyday. This program also includes found films and videos of sundry physical activity.

Untitled (Exercise Video), 1986, Andy Mann, 4:00
Home Alone meets Taxi Driver in this cable access exercise tape made by one of the pioneers of video art.

Slow Start, 2002, Marc Schmidt, 10:00
A motorbike race comes to an unpleasant conclusion.

Vera x 2, 2002, Jon Jost, 7:00
An actor's exercise reveals the artifice of cinema.

Guerilla Public Service, 2002, Richard Allan Ankrom, 10:00
A Los Angeles artist helps CalTrans augment a confusing guide sign.

Water Rerouting Initiatives, 2001, Adam Frelin, 5:00
An artist covertly redirects water in public spaces.

Double Garage Scene, 2002, Fraser Stables, 2:30
A camera pan reveals a standoff between a character inside a car singing a section from the opera Tosca and a second male standing in front of the car shouting at him.

Terminal Portrait, 2002, Fraser Stables, 3:00
A character talks about a video of himself being hung by his friends.

Solo Yoga Spinout, 2002, Jessica Hutchins, 4:00
A non-instructional yoga video with a special appearance by the leader of the Axis of Evil.

Christmas 1990, 2002, 2:50
Charlie Brown takes a walk through the desert. Two memories, one pre-Gulf War and one pre Reagan-era, overlap with nostalgia for Jimmy Carter.

Andrea Grover is the co-founder and director of Aurora Picture Show, a 501(c)(3) non-profit center for film, video and new media housed in a former church building in Houston, Texas. Ms. Grover dedicates her time to curating, promoting and preserving artist-made film and video works, and hosting visitors in her church/home theater. She is an MFA graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a former Core Fellow in residence at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Ms. Grover is currently curating companion video programs for two separate exhibitions at the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, and the Dallas Museum of Art. Also in the works is a retrospective from the late video pioneer, activist, and iconoclast, Andy Mann.