SEEKING: MISSED CONNECTIONS & LOOSE ASSOCIATIONS BY LJ & CHRIS
Dir. Chris Collins and LJ Frezza, 2010-2015
Approx. 80 min., USA

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20 – 7:30 PM
Chris & LJ appearing live and in person.

“Seeking” is a two person video screening about obsession, connection, and community in the age of pervasive technology. Both LJ and Chris are fascinated in locating and recreating the human moments of longing in the never ending deluge of images and cultural symbols. Throughout their work, they position themselves both as amateurs and experts, host and audience, both community member and cultural anthropologist. They sincerely engage in familiar forms of production, but always with the disarming criticality of an artist. The results are absurd, deeply funny, but also poignant. Can an obsessive fan-made supercut say something about loneliness? Can cheesy corporate stock photos be used to tell a story of desperation and redemption? What can video games communicate about labor, or existential boredom?

Chris Collins’ work is the collective awkward squirm of a networked digital culture. Through videos, games, participatory performances, and curatorial experiments, he highlights both the absurdity and the humanity in the technology that’s reshaping our experiences, our relationships, and our perception. In other words: Chris makes work about what the internet feels like. He’s shown extensively in the states and abroad, including the Museum of the Moving Image, The MusieumsQuartier in Vienna, The Nueberger Museum, The MCA, MDW, CAC, CS13, WFMU, WLPN, SFMOMA(’s blog), and other places both with and without acronyms. He lives in Chicago where he teaches at SAIC and UIC.

LJ Frezza is an artist, curator, and human being whose work examines mass media’s role in the formation of personal subjectivities. He is the co-founder of the BASEMENT Media Festival, and is currently pursuing his MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Blindsketch (2014) Chris Collins, 3m

The Waiting Game (2013) Chris Collins Parts 1-6 (6m)

Golden Eye (2013) LJ Frezza, 6m

I just wasn’t made for these times (2012) Chris Collins, 3.5m

Level 1 (2015) LJ Frezza, 5m

Pony (2010) Chris Collins, 4.5m

Attempting to write my name with silly string in Zero Gravity (2013) Chris Collins, 1m

me trying to play the intro part of “Nuthin But A G Thang” on a slide whistle (2009) Chris Collins 1m

The LJ Frezza Talk Show, Episode 3 (2011) LJ Frezza, 11m

Natasha (2013) Chris Collins, 3m

Stress (2014) Chris Collins, 1m

Boldly Going (2010) LJ Frezza, 4m

Nothing (2014) LJ Frezza, 6.5m

CONSENSUSCON (2014) Chris Collins, 11m

Tyepilot (2015) Chris Collins, 10ish-m

[Sneak Preview of a New Vid] (2015) LJ Frezza, 6.5m

Secret Handshake (2015) Chris Collins, 4m