VIEW TRAILER
June 7
Directed by: A’Dora Phillips & Brian Schumacher
Produced by: The American Macular Degeneration Foundation (AMDF)
A Q&A with Directors A'Dora Phillips & Brian Schumacher, Tim Prentice & David Colbert will follow the film. Moderated by Fritz Horstman, Director of Education programs, the Albers Foundation.
This documentary follows the kinetic sculptor Tim Prentice, who is now in his nineties, as he works in his studio and looks back on his career and the influences that shaped him.
For decades, Tim has worked with a small crew of local craftspeople and artists who have helped him realize his production of diverse public and private works. One of his closest collaborators on this crew, David Colbert, eventually became his partner. David shares the spotlight with Tim in several scenes, with their interactions showing both the depth of their collaborative partnership and their often differing but complementary views.
The Air Made Visible intertwines footage shot in recent years at Tim’s home and studio in Litchfield County, Connecticut, with footage of a younger Tim as shot by Zach Newcomb in his 2002 film, Finding Tim Prentice, and in casual footage shot by the photographer Jeffrey Milstein. Pivotal moments in Tim’s career, including his loss of vision to macular degeneration, are brought to life through animation done by Molly Schwartz and Lindsey Meyer-Beug of PHLEA TV. The film also contains historic footage from many of the large, commissioned public works Tim’s studio has done over the decades, juxtaposed with video footage of the natural world.
42mins/ NR
A’Dora Phillips directs the Vision & Art Project (V&AP). An initiative of the American Macular Degeneration Foundation (AMDF), the V&AP explores the impact vision loss has had on contemporary and historical artists. Her work entails researching and writing about outstanding professional artists with macular degeneration, curating art exhibitions, and making films about artists at work in their studios. The Air Made Visible is the fourth film produced by the AMDF and V&AP. In each of the films they’ve produced, A’Dora and her collaborative partner Brian Schumacher—who between them have extensive backgrounds in writing, artmaking, and design— have taken on increasing responsibility for the production of their films. The Air Made Visible is the first that they have fully directed.
Brian Schumacher, a multi-disciplinary designer, artist, and educator, brings first-hand experience into the unique challenges faced by the artists profiled by the Vision & Art Project, as well as insight into their working methods and creative processes. As creative director, he is responsible for the visual narrative, graphic content, and substance and composition of the exhibitions, publications, and other multi-media initiatives taken on by the V&AP. He has been the recipient of numerous grants and awards, including a Vogelstein grant, a Stobart Foundation grant, the Mary Butler Trust Purchase Prize, the American Institute of Architecture Henry Adams award, and the Darwin T. Turner award for excellence in promoting diversity and inclusiveness in the classroom. His paintings and drawings are held in public and private collections across the United States and Europe, including the Forbes Foundation and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art. He has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in architecture, and over a decade of experience studying and teaching traditional drawing and painting in private ateliers in New York City, France, and Italy.
Tim Prentice kinetic sculptor, received a Masters Degree in architecture from Yale in 1960 and founded the award-winning architectural firm of Prentice & Chan in 1965. Ten years later he established a studio in Cornwall, Connecticut to design and fabricate kinetic sculpture. Airports, hospitals, universities, libraries and other public venues throughout the United States and abroad have commissioned his large-scale sculptures. Corporate clients include American Express, Bank of America, Mobil, AT&T, Hewlett-Packard, Wells Fargo, Astra Zeneca, Samsung and Nokia. In the last few years he has completed installations in Switzerland, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Northern Ireland, Australia, Hong Kong and Cameroon. Prentice has many pieces in private and museum collections as well as in excess of 150 public and corporate commissions.
David Colbert has been a sculptor for over 35 years. He began his own practice just after his 1979 graduation from Middlebury College and started working with Prentice in 1982. He feels a close kinship with the minimalist approach to art. He feels his work, with its concern for how light plays on simple forms, closely compliments his work with Prentice. He has completed many public art commissions independently and has had a museum exhibition devoted to his own work.
In 2012 Tim Prentice and David Colbert, formed Prentice Colbert, Inc.