The Beauty Never Ends: Emily Vey Duke and Cooper Battersby (4 films)

A PROGRAM OF SHORT MOVIES BY EMILY VEY DUKE AND COOPER BATTERSBY, CURATED BY MIKE HOOLBOOM At the occasion of the launching of the book The Beauty Is Relentless: The short movies of Emily Vey Duke and Cooper Battersby edited by Mike Hoolboom. The literary post-punk short films of Emily Vey Duke and Cooper Battersby have been tearing up the festival/ gallery circuit for the past 15 years with their blend of bedroom pop, perverse animations and hopes for fame. Funny, touching and ambitious in scope, their work continues to deal with many contemporary themes: addiction, spirituality, identity, relationship dynamics and the ongoing quest for joy. “[Here] exists a kind of nakedness, a peeling away of propriety, a questioning of behavioural and social systems—and yet I find their work refreshingly playful and deeply generous.” — Deborah Stratman, University of Illinois at Chicago “Often working with the disconnects between human and animal—and their urge to reconcile the sterile mechanics of our world versus the intuitive viscerality we keep buried within—their dark sense of humour has yielded a slate of bizarre taxidermies, installations, videos and sculpture, all tinged with a gutsy, mystical longing that’s sweet, sinister, hilarious and disturbing all at once.” — Murray Whyte, Toronto star