Series: Artist's Showcase
Program: Lea Grammont
Date: 1976-01-01
Subject: Children; Drama; Memory
Copyright Holder: Ros Barron

Clip Description
This episode of "Artist's Showcase" features "Lea Grammont" by Ros Barron.

Ros Barron's "Lea Grammont" In this eerie meditation on childhood and memory, strange and mystical figures appear as evidence of things lurking beneath the surface and seen through the eyes of a child. The child is first seen seated at the feet of a female figure who works assiduously at her knitting. "When I was six," a voiceover proclaims, "I knew of something separate and strange." A figure with a black veil appears before a caged bird and comes face-to-face with another woman. A human bird figure appears in a mirror. The veiled figure spits a blood-like substance into a bowl. The bird is released from its cage and perches on a woman's arm. A blindfolded man with a rope around his neck holds a bouquet of flowers with an outstretched arm. "I am no dutiful daughter," says the unseen narrator, at the same time as one witnesses the child return to the knitting woman's side with a man, to create a seeming picture of family harmony. The soundtrack is credited to Harris Barron.

"Artist's Showcase" was a series designed to showcase video art and experimental work from WGBH. The program ran on Sunday evenings at 11 P.M., from the fall of 1976 through 1982. In the early 1970's, "Artist's Showcase" was the only consistent broadcast outlet for many of the Workshop productions. Most materials of broadcast quality created at WGBH in the mid-1970's were shown as part of this series. Additionally, earlier video art experiments and segments of related shows, such as "Mixed Bag" or "What's Happening Mr. Silver" were broadcast under these auspices. This series was also a broadcast outlet for a handful of works by video artists that were not created at WGBH but only acquired for this purpose. Some compilation reels showing highlights of Workshop activity were also broadcast.

Program Description
This episode of "Artist's Showcase" features "Lea Grammont" by Ros Barron.

Ros Barron's "Lea Grammont" In this eerie meditation on childhood and memory, strange and mystical figures appear as evidence of things lurking beneath the surface and seen through the eyes of a child. The child is first seen seated at the feet of a female figure who works assiduously at her knitting. "When I was six," a voiceover proclaims, "I knew of something separate and strange." A figure with a black veil appears before a caged bird and comes face-to-face with another woman. A human bird figure appears in a mirror. The veiled figure spits a blood-like substance into a bowl. The bird is released from its cage and perches on a woman's arm. A blindfolded man with a rope around his neck holds a bouquet of flowers with an outstretched arm. "I am no dutiful daughter," says the unseen narrator, at the same time as one witnesses the child return to the knitting woman's side with a man, to create a seeming picture of family harmony. The soundtrack is credited to Harris Barron.

"Artist's Showcase" was a series designed to showcase video art and experimental work from WGBH. The program ran on Sunday evenings at 11 P.M., from the fall of 1976 through 1982. In the early 1970's, "Artist's Showcase" was the only consistent broadcast outlet for many of the Workshop productions. Most materials of broadcast quality created at WGBH in the mid-1970's were shown as part of this series. Additionally, earlier video art experiments and segments of related shows, such as "Mixed Bag" or "What's Happening Mr. Silver" were broadcast under these auspices. This series was also a broadcast outlet for a handful of works by video artists that were not created at WGBH but only acquired for this purpose. Some compilation reels showing highlights of Workshop activity were also broadcast.

Series Description
The New Television Workshop originated at WGBH, a public broadcasting station in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1974 to support the creation and development of experimental video art. This experimental programming included dance, drama, music, performance and visual arts on video and film. As early as 1968, WGBH was committed to the development of video art through residency programs, with artists such as Nam June Paik, and the "Rockefeller Artists-in-Television" project. Many of these early works (pre-1974) were broadcast both locally and nationally.

As an umbrella for arts related programming, the Workshop included "Artist's Showcase, " "Frames of Reference, " "Dance for Camera, " "Poetry Breaks," and "New Television," as well as acquired arts programming. Individual works were created for "Visions," a series produced by WNET (New York), and "Alive From Off Center," a series produced by KTCA (St. Paul - Minneapolis). The Contemporary Art Television (CAT) Fund was co-founded by the Workshop and Boston's Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA) in the 1980's, to commission works by video artists. In 1993 the Workshop ceased production at WGBH.

See also: http://main.wgbh.org/wgbh/NTW/FA/TITLES/Lea196.HTML