Raymond Saroff

A Film of a Claes Oldenburg Happening, Ray Gun Theater, 1962.

Early in 1962, Claes Oldenburg offered a remarkable series of ten "Happenings" in a store on East Second Street in New York City. The audiences were kept small to heighten the intimacy of the experience. What is a "Happening"? It would seem impossible to describe afterwards. Yet Raymond Saroff compressed the rich and sprawling imagery of each evening-length work to the essential matter in hand... – Howard Rose (1962).

A Film of a Claes Oldenburg Happening, Ray Gun Theater, 1962.

A Film of a Claes Oldenburg Happening, Ray Gun Theater, 1962.

A Film of a Claes Oldenburg Happening, Ray Gun Theater, 1962.

A Film of a Claes Oldenburg Happening, Ray Gun Theater, 1962.

A Film of a Claes Oldenburg Happening, Ray Gun Theater, 1962.

Early in 1962, Claes Oldenburg offered a remarkable series of ten "Happenings" in a store on East Second Street in New York City. The audiences were kept small to heighten the intimacy of the experience. What is a "Happening"? It would seem impossible to describe afterwards. Yet Raymond Saroff compressed the rich and sprawling imagery of each evening-length work to the essential matter in hand... – Howard Rose (1962).

A Film of a Claes Oldenburg Happening, Ray Gun Theater, 1962.

A Film of a Claes Oldenburg Happening, Ray Gun Theater, 1962.

A Film of a Claes Oldenburg Happening, Ray Gun Theater, 1962.

A Film of a Claes Oldenburg Happening, Ray Gun Theater, 1962.

A Film of a Claes Oldenburg Happening, Ray Gun Theater, 1962.

A film by Raymond Saroff of a Claes Oldenburg Happening, Ray Gun Theater, 1962

A Film of a Claes Oldenburg Happening, Ray Gun Theater, 1962.

After filming Claes Oldenburg's Ray Gun Theater Happenings in 1962, and inspired by the saturation of all facets of modern life with sexuality, Saroff set out to create a new film in 1963-4. Joined by three artist/actors—Lucas Samaras, Peter Holbrook, and Bob Stanley—Saroff filmed in the Manhattan subways, on rooftops, in the workroom of an IBM office filled with giant computers, and in the buildings of lower Broadway. He also appropriated imagery from television, such as liquor and cigarette advertisements, and spliced in found footage of an old "blue" movie. Very much a document of its time, this is a silent, black-and-white "art film" photographed on location with a hand-held camera using only available light. The editing emphasizes the mechanical artificiality of consumerism as opposed to the earthiness of the everyday, with its crude but honest appetites, presumptions, and vanity.

A Film of a Claes Oldenburg Happening, Ray Gun Theater, 1962.

Early in 1962 Claes Oldenburg offered a remarkable series of ten 'Happenings' in a store on East Second Street in New York City. The audiences were kept small to heighten the intimacy of the experience. What is a 'Happening'? It would seem impossible to describe afterwards. Yet Raymond Saroff compressed the rich and sprawling imagery of each evening-length work to the essential matter in hand, reassembling a visual realization of what was seemingly consigned to the memories of its audience. All the characterizations, the unprepared transitions, the very personal rhythms with something of Saroff's own: the 'Happenings' impact on a sensitive eye, its reduction to a single and coherent point of view. Features "Store Days I & II", "Nekropolis I & II", "Injun I & II", "Voyages I & II", and "World's Fair I & II."