Past

Jem Cohen: NYC Weights and Measures

Nov. 4, 2011 – Mar. 25, 2012

In NYC Weights and Measures, Jem Cohen chronicles a city that exudes noise and bustle, but is balanced with beauty and tranquility.

In NYC Weights and Measures (2006), Jem Cohen chronicles a city that exudes noise and bustle, balanced with beauty and tranquility. A compendium of street footage, the video shows a ticker-tape parade, street musicians, the subways… life above and under ground. Cohen writes, “Sometimes I just wander around with my camera—I like to see what comes around the corner, and sometimes I just like the corner itself.”

About the Artist
Jem Cohen is a New York-based filmmaker who mixes documentary, narrative, and experimental genres, often building from his own ongoing archive of street footage, portraits and sound. Cohen’s work has been featured at various festivals and on television. His feature film Chain premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival, was broadcast on Arte and the Sundance Channel, and won an Independent Spirit Award. Benjamin Smoke, co-directed with Peter Sillen, was selected for festivals including Berlin, Edinburgh, Melbourne, London, and Vancouver.

Cohen has worked extensively with musicians including Godspeed You Black Emperor!, Fugazi, Vic Chesnutt, the Ex, Terry Riley, Elliott Smith, R.E.M., Sparklehorse, and the Orpheus Orchestra.

Related Exhibitions
NYC Weights and Measures is presented in the Goodkind Media Center in conjunction with The Radical Camera: New York’s Photo League, 1936-1951.

Cohen’s Lost Book Found (1996) was featured at the Jewish Museum in 2004 as part of the exhibition Urban Eden: Three Videos by New York Artists.

Media programs are supported by the Martin and Doris Payson Fund for Film and Media.

Jem Cohen (American, b. 1962), still from NYC Weights and Measures, 2006, 16mm on DVD, 6:15 min. Courtesy of the artist.