Raphael Montañez Ortíz
- Known for
- Directing
- Born
- January 30, 1934 (age 92)
- Birthplace
- Brooklyn, New York, USA
Biography
Raphael Montañez Ortíz (b. 1934, New York) is a multidisciplinary artist perhaps best known for his radical performances of the 1960s as part of the Destructivist movement which he helped to articulate. Not many know that he is also a pioneer of found footage cinema who deserves greater recognition within the American filmic avant-garde. Starting in 1957, he produced a number of singular works by subjecting 16mm prints of commercially- or institutionally-produced films to a cut-up method inspired by Yaqui shamanic practices, a kind of ritualistic chance operation intended to break down their structure and thoroughly undermine their discursive power. In the mid-1980s, Montañez Ortiz continued his critical deconstructions of commercial cinema, this time exploring a novel format: the laser disc. Having created a special interactive setup at the computer lab of Rutgers University, the artist transformed micro-moments from classic films into looping, stuttering choreographies that, through obsessive repetition, reveal the tacit gestualities and subconscious inner dynamics of these seemingly innocent Hollywood scenes.
Known For
Filmography
Couch Destruction: Angel Release
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Piano Destruction Concert: Dada con Mama
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Busy Bodies
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It's Coming Up
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The Conversation
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Introspective: Ortiz Art-Work Late 1950s - Late 1980s
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Piano Destruction Concert: Humpty Dumpty Had a Great Fall
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Ring Ring Rag Time
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That's Too Much
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Dance Number 22
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Our Thoughts Are Made of Clay: The Horsewomyn of the Apocalypse
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Gonna Get Me a Gal
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Here's Looking At You Kid
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If You Don't Want It Anymore
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Man Has Man Has Always
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You Bust Your Bunns
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Pushann Pushann
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Couplett
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Stop Stop Stop Stop
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Good and Evil
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The First Born Female Child
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I Spent My Last Breathe At Thee
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What Is This
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Beach Umbrella
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The Kiss
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Dance Number
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Welcome
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Cowboy and "Indian" Film
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Henny Penny: The Sky Is Falling
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Newsreel
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Golf
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Ritual Destruction of "Follow Through"
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