Avant-garde film exposition to focus on the horrors of war

How do you capture war in a sound or a pulse of light?

“Cut and Scratch,” a brutal avant-garde exposition by Binghamton University cinema alumnus Benjamin Stone ’12 and Associate Professor and Chair of Cinema Tomonari Nishikawa, attempts to do just that, casting light on war’s destruction of innocence, the consequences of rampant capitalism, and the contempt for humanity by those in power.

The result: A disorienting visual cacophony of forms, textures and shadows, which forces the viewer to pull images from the chaos to reinterpret and recontextualize them.

“The purpose of my collages is to engage the viewer not just in shock or disgust, but through these images of death and suffering, realize that this is the end result of capitalism, globalization and colonialism,” Stone said. “War is in a far-off place; it doesn’t directly affect most of us living in this country. We don’t often think about the actual destruction and pain that is being unleashed on people all over the world, constantly.”

The event will be held April 5 at the art venue HCS – Spooky Action, located at 1803 Castle Gardens Road in Vestal. The exhibition begins at 5 p.m., with the performance running from 6 to 7 p.m.

An exhibit of Stone’s artwork will be in several places on the property, inside and outside the building, explained HCS owner Derek Nelson. The space itself is unique: a prototyping shop that previously served as a skatepark and, before that, as a precast concrete plant; in addition to its art space, it now contains a free lending library with more than 120,000 books.

When talks began about a possible art show with Nishikawa, Nelson considered what would complement his work; Stone came to mind. Stone never took classes with Nishikawa at Binghamton, although he later met him through the Transient Visions film festival.

“I’m a big believer that things that are isolated to their perspective fields are inextricably linked, and these linkages form true beauty,” Nelson said. “Disparate things combine to make something greater than what they are by themselves.”

During the first half of the show, Nishikawa will be scratching a looped 16mm filmstrip to produce sound and images. The second half features live collaging, which is exactly what it sounds like: Stone will project images while hand-cutting and pasting them into a composition in front of an audience, while Nishikawa keeps scratching the 16mm filmstrip to alter the sound.

“I see this collaboration as a symbiotic performance,” Stone said. “His sounds, his creation of an aural landscape, will shape and create how I make my cuts and place my images.”