Charles Atlas (video artist)

Charles Atlas is a video artist and film director who also does lighting and set design.

He is a pioneer in developing media-dance, also called dance for camera, which is work that is created directly for the camera. While Atlas’ primary artistic medium is video, he also began to experiment with live electronic performance in 2003.

Selected Live Performance Work

• 2004 Turning, live video performance in collaboration with Antony and the Johnsons, St. Ann's Warehouse, Brooklyn, New York
• 2003 Muscle Shoals, live video and costume design; collaboration with Douglas Dunn and Steve Lacy; performed at Théâtre de la Bastille, Paris and Danspace Project, New York
• 1994 Delusional, multi-media performance/theater work; collaboration with Marina Abramovic; co-produced by Theater Am Turm (Frankfurt), Munty Theater (Antwerp), and Consort (Amsterdam)

Selected Media Work

• 2003 Instant Fame, installation and real-time video performance, Participant, Inc., New York
• 2002 Rainer Variations, video montage. First shown as an installation at Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery, University of the Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• 2002 The Legend of Leigh Bowery, documentary film, commissioned by ARTE France. First theatrical showing: Cinema Village, New York
• 2000 Merce Cunningham: A Lifetime of Dance, documentary film, commissioned by ARTE France, BBC, WNET-TV. Acquired by the Museum of Modern Art
• 1997-99 The "Martha" Tapes, video collage. First shown at "Mother", New York
• 1997 The Hanged One, four multi-channel video works installed at the Whitney Museum, New York
• 1994 Superhoney, eroto-horror video/dance collaboration with Thomas Hejlsen. Commissioned by The National Film Board of Denmark
• 1992-98 Teach, video portrait/installation, XL Gallery, New York. Collection Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, Germany
• 1991 Son of Sam and Delilah, video feature. Produced in association with The Kitchen, New York
• 1986 Hail the New Puritan, "mockumentary" broadcast featuring Michael Clark. Commissioned by Channel Four Television, London
• 1983 Secret of the Waterfall, video/dance collaboration with choreographer, Douglas Dunn and poets, Reed Bye and Anne Waldman. Commissioned by New Television Workshop, WGBH-TV, Boston, Massachusetts
• 1981 Channels/Inserts, 16mm film, collaboration with Merce Cunningham. Produced by Cunningham Dance Foundation.

Selected Grants and Awards

• 2003 Melbourne Queer Film Festival, Best Documentary for Legend of Leigh Bowery
• 2000 Dance Screen, Best Documentary for Merce Cunningham: A Lifetime of Dance
• 1998 Bessie Award for The "Martha" Tapes
• 1988 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship
• 1987 Bessie Award for Sustained Achievement in Video
• 1986 Bessie Award for Costumes for Michael Clark Dance Company

References