Announcing: Burning Stone Postmortem Exhibition at the Parlor
BURNING STONE POSTMORTEM
March 10 – April 1
The Parlor
108 W North Ave, Baltimore
Cliff Banquets artist collective presents a retrospective exhibition—Tyler Brunner: Burning Stone Postmortem—of their award-winning musical film Burning Stone, directed by Tyler Brunner. Curated by Joyce Liang, The exhibition will be on view at the Parlor, a former funeral home, running from March 10, through April 1, with live performances, free wine, and hand-made chocolate at the opening reception on March 10 from 6:00 – 9:00 PM.
Shooting over the course of two and a half years between the backcountry, and his home studio, Tyler Brunner bred forty butterflies, which were cast in his film Burning Stone as a symbolization of the main character, Enoch. From eggs, butterflies lived their whole life cycle in a black box, a homemade shooting studio in Brunner’s room (please refer to the disclaimer below for more details on the handling of butterflies). Their bodies were eventually covered in yellow oxide powder, symbolizing Enoch’s divine physical disintegration through exposure to radioactivity.
“The butterflies used in the film lived out their whole life cycle and were intimately cared for, however, they were not immortalized in film,” said Brunner.
Image Courtesy of Xiaohan Qin
With the opening of Memento mori on November 18, 2022, 108 West North Avenue marked its new beginning as an affordable art space as well as a speakeasy bar and restaurant in Station North Arts District. Until then, the building served as a community funeral house where families and friends grieved the passing of their beloved ones since 1914. From its vestibule to the main hall, the Parlor builds a bridge between us and a world that remains mystical but solemn. Tyler Brunner: Burning Stone Postmortem hopes to immortalize the passing of the butterflies and reflect on the many other components that contributed to the film, echoing the love, grief, and history of this building. As the second chapter of the film, this exhibition marks the end of the Burning Stone series and celebrates a new beginning for the artist and the Cliff Banquet Artist Collective, just as the repurposing of the Parlor.
Image Courtesy of Mollye Miller
Throughout the completion of Burning Stone, Brunner sketched over a hundred drawings, composed the film’s soundtrack, designed and delivered performances taking hundreds of hours, and melted several props including the sculpture Rogue Pitch Foundry. The exhibition Tyler Brunner: Burning Stone Postmortem documents the conflation of many fires in a foundry.
“Ultimately, the point is that it's a retrospective that reflects on how encompassing and passionate all of the constituent parts were.”
The exhibition is made possible by the partnership and sponsorship of Central Baltimore Partnership and the Parlor.
Disclaimer: The butterflies used in the film lived out their full natural life cycles. The first two generations were released upon their natural host plants which were planted and cared for the years prior. The third and fourth generations were cared for indoors until their passing. They remained unharmed throughout the filming process of Burning Stone. This exhibition includes the preserved bodies of butterflies.
Burning Stone received Best Feature and Best Original Score from Mindfield Film Festival
Gallery Hours
Friday & Saturday
6:00 – 9:00 PM
Special Events
Opening Reception
Performance by artist Tyler Brunner, Hand-made chocolate, & free wine
March 10, 2023 (Friday)
6:00 – 9:00 PM (performance at 7:00 PM)
Closing Reception
Performance by artist Tyler Brunner & Speakeasy Bar
April 1, 2023 (Friday)
6:00 – 9:00 PM
Screenings
Burning Stone by Tyler Brunner
Every Friday (3/17, 3/24, 3/31)
7:00 PM
The Parlor
“Motivated by the pursuit of angel-hood, the boy Enoch sacrifices his friends and family to a prospective uranium deposit, Coles Hill, Virginia. An ensemble of hypnotic instruments and choir weave together, intersect, and thread sonic and visual information in an unconventional approach to musical film.”
The Deviation of Desire: Fire by Joy Li
Every Saturday (3/11, 3/18, 3/25)
7:00 PM
The Parlor
“Since 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic has spread globally. A young woman quarantining at home lights a candle on her palm in order to fight against the numbness caused by virtual online interaction. After this intimate contact with flames, she thinks that she has fallen in love with fire. And then, she started a series of practices to get closer to fire.”