Beyond/In Western New York: Dorothea Braemer

Beyond/In Western New York: Dorothea Braemer

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Oct 15th 2007, 11:25am By Cynnie Gaasch

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A recycled dollhouse and four films are the basis for Dorothea Braemer’s piece at UB Center for the Arts Gallery. This idealized symbol of a home is fraught with conflict as the four films capture the complex family dynamics that evolve over the selling of Braemer’s childhood home and her mother’s move to an assisted living facility. The tiny projections and screens inside the windows of the dollhouse make for an intimate melancholy, a metaphor for psychology.

Passive main characters inspire Braemer’s work; she uses documentary footage and fiction, where she casts people to create characters, and makes the most of mixing formats. Her video, also about her mother, will be screened as a part of the Beyond/In Western New York exhibit at Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center on Saturday, November 3 at 8:00pm.

Buffalo Rising is taking the opportunity of the Beyond/In Western New York exhibition, an event that brings twelve Buffalo Niagara region art spaces together to show the work of fifty artists who live and work within the Great Lakes region, to showcase Buffalo artists.

Loss of childhood, and the aging of our parents is close to home, this difficult transition even happens to people who live on a different continent from their parents. Braemer came to the U.S. from Germany to get her MFA at Temple University. She moved to Buffalo in 2003 to take over as Executive Director of Squeaky Wheel, Buffalo's Media Arts Center. She says of the U.S., “I really love the grassroots spirit of taking initiative and not waiting for someone else to make things happen.” She also enjoys the independent media scene, “The U.S. has a strong tradition that does not exist in Germany.”

Braemer’s experience with Termite TV, a collective that traveled across the country committing the stories of activists to video, influences her direction of Squeaky Wheel. She has initiated two unusual programs here that are truly valuable to the Buffalo community. First, the “Buffalo Youth Media Institute” trains young people in nine months to document their world, creating an ever growing document of young people’s experience growing up in Buffalo. “Channels: Stories of the Niagara Frontier” pairs documentary film and video makers with grassroots initiatives throughout the region, allowing the under told stories a place in history.

To learn more about Squeaky Wheel programs visit www.squeaky.org, and check out the Beyond/In Western New York exhibit on its website, the 12 exhibits remain on view for varying amounts of time, so plan your visits now.

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