JASON UNDERHILL

UNIVERSAL CITY (2010)

 20 minutes

I found this ad on craigslist:

“VACATION RENTAL/ SUBLET: COME LIVE ON “LOVE STREET” This Chateau was the former home of iconic Doors frontman Jim Morrison in the late ’60s and is in the epicenter of Laurel Canyon Village; you will feel the exclusivity of a getaway with a gated private entrance leading to an open courtyard. The entrance at the top of the stairs has the feel of a Mountain Chalet… The dining area has a wooden gothic table and the living area is extremely comfortable to hang out and feel the historical significance of this Nostalgic Home. Despite the recent remodeling, it is still very true to the period of when the Doors were at the height of their fame. A balcony overlooks the Canyon Country Store .There is a lot of outside space as a fresh bouganvilla breeze of cool air perfumes the grounds complete with an outside shower, firepit and garden. Come stay on Love Street.”

I printed the ad and photos of the house and taped them to my studio wall. The pictures of the house, in contrast to the craigslist ad, had a determined kind of neutrality to them. As is the style with vacation rentals, the place looked just inviting enough to make guests feel comfortable in its luxuries, while consistently reminding them it wasn’t theirs. But this rental broke the mold; with its Warhol-inspired oil paintings of Jim Morrison and its placement of guitars, drug paraphernalia and pornography, your stay on ‘Love Street’ was an opportunity, not only to fake a life in someone else’s house, but to also mimic Morrison’s hedonistic last years on earth, just as long as you’re out by 10am and don’t break any dishes.

I spent the first night in the house by myself, writing the script for the next three days of shooting in the house with the cast and crew. Although it was made very quickly, with many elements improvised, Universal City is an upheaval of the original ad I had taped onto my studio wall three months prior, made while experiencing the structure in time. The plot borrows from the tacit expectation of houseguests to die in the bathtub after reinventing themselves as Morrison’s ghost, using footage of actors and frequent collaborators Roxie Fuller and Ben Smith’s previous acting work* as stand ins for actual spectres.

*From a 1995 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 called ‘Squash It’, in which Ben was a guest star, and a film Roxie had a featured role in called Manic (2001), starring Don Cheadle. Ayana Hampton plays Don Cheadle’s fictional daughter, Grace, in Universal City.

Written & Directed by Jason Underhill

Story by: Jason Underhill, Rena Kosnett, Roxie Fuller, Ben Smith

Cast: Ben Smith, Ignacio Genzon, Roxie Fuller, Ayana Hampton

THE ROAD TO MARGARITAVILLE (2010) - 51 minutes.

EXCERPT: ‘Loving The Gift Horse in the Mouth’

Lissa, an exotic dancer, and Nick, living in a motel room and completing state-mandated community service, serendipitously meet at a back-ally dumpster. The failures of their developing friendship are the focus of the film.

Written and shot over the course of a year, The Road to Margaritaville is a meditation (by definition) of a story that I was told nearly a decade ago about a friend from high school who misread the television footage of the September 11 attacks as scenes from a movie: the film continues and reflects on that original thought. I’m reading ‘reflection’, as a Lacanian device, entirely divorced from contemplation or understanding; as a way of witnessing the distortions of reality and misrecognizing them as complete; as a description of everything beyond our scope of vision; as a frame.

CREDITS

Directed by Jason Underhill

Script by Jason Underhill & Ben Smith

Story by Jason Underhill, Ben Smith & Roxie Fuller

Cast: Roxie Fuller, Ben Smith, Ignacio Genzon, Joshua J. Peters, Alex McDougall.

THE ROAD TO MARGARITAVILLE (2010) - 51 minutes

Sliding Doors, 5 minute excerpt. In this scene, Nick encounters Alex, the manager/head of security of the A.P.A.C.H.E. Motel. Trading one predator for another, Nick saves Alex from a giant, puffy white snake (hallucinated), only to retreat back to his room, avoiding a delinquent room bill. Ben Smith as Nick, Ignacio Genzon as Alex.

Howlin’ (2009)

CAST: Roxie Fuller, Ben Smith, Lucy Griffin, Michael Patrick Carr. Written by Jason Underhill, Roxie Fuller, Ben Smith. Directed by Jason Underhill - 

Howlin’ follows friends Daniel and Maria as they talk each other into a narrative that suitably recycles the tropes of their favorite gothic fantasies, servicing their egos as they seek full-frontal self-possession. The pair follows their dreams, sell their souls and make plans to burn their sleepy little town to the ground, all without losing their much-deserved Idol status. 28 minutes.

B.Y.O.B.B.Q. (2009)

Cast: Roxie Fuller, Rena Kosnett (as The Driver). Written and Directed by Jason Underhill -

Follows Tilda and her passive resistance to imminent doom after she hitches a ride to her friend’s barbecue. 13 minutes.

JESSIE LIVES: Lookin’ for Friends in all the Wrong Places (2006)

Cast: Roxie Fuller. Written by Jason Underhill and Roxie Fuller, Directed by Jason Underhill - 

Jessie, left friendless and humiliated, navigates her usual suburban terrain, looking for the new world. 17 minutes.

JESSIE LIVES: Fake it Til You Make It’ (2007)

Cast: Roxie Fuller. Written by Jason Underhill & Roxie Fuller. Directed by Jason Underhill -

Jessie gets lost twice: the first time she’s looking for Rodney’s Palace of the Undead—the second time she’s just looking for her own reckless abandon, as she articulates the details her own fantastic death/makeover/revenge as Appleonia, Queen of Bakersfield, part-time CD store owner, full-time legend. 17 Minutes.

Untitled (Sedona Video), 2007

Special thanks to Eos Yolanda, who allowed me to tape our session, and to Roxie Fuller and Rena Kosnett. Shot and recorded in Sedona Arizona, September 2007.

A multi-channel video installation incorporating 40 videos into one night karaoke. Installed and performed at Event Horizon, GSK Contemporary, at the Royal Academy of Art, London, (2008), The Apple Tree, London (2008), and The Mandrake Bar, Los Angeles (2010).

JESSIE LIVES: Aunt Salami (2007). Cast: Roxie Fuller - A scene I shot with Roxie about Jessie’s morbidly obese aunt Sallie. 2 minutes.

JESSIE LIVES: FOUL (2007). Cast: Roxie Fuller - In which Jessie sits through her PE class. Her coach mistakes her for a trash can, and all hell breaks loose. 5 minutes.

JESSIE LIVES: The Painting(2006)Cast: Roxie Fuller - A scene we reference in the longer Lookin’ for Friends in All the Wrong Places. Jessie’s new foray into artistic expression attracts attention from Rodney, who hates her painting but invites Jessie to his party anyways. 5 minutes.

JESSIE LIVES: B.M.O.C. (Big Man on Campus) (2006). Cast: Roxie Fuller - One of the very first scenes I shot with Roxie in January 2006 at our old high school. Roxie managed to convince a teacher to let us through the gates by acting like a student. “I think I left some food in my locker, and I’m afraid of rats,” she said. 4 minutes.

Jenny, The Girl With No Eyes (2005). Cast: Lucy Griffin, Allison Brie, Jessica Zelenko, Jason Underhill (voice) and Jessica Dobkin (voice) - Co-Directed with Jessica Dobkin.  This video was supposed to be the first in a series of mockumentary-style episodes about collapsing productions (It’s fitting, I guess, that this is the only video to come from that series). This is an attempt to make a film about Jenny, a high-school junior who, as she alleges, was born with no eyes.  13 minutes. 

It’s the Beating of That Hideous Heart! (The Beating of Our Hearts is the Only Sound) (2004). Cast: Rena Kosnett. Written by Jason Underhill and Rena Kosnett. Directed by Jason Underhill - An attempt to undermine the sentiment of cinematic motivations by exploiting the medium’s more nostalgic tendencies (in this case, 60s music and super 8 film). Special Thanks: dead bird we found on the beach. You were at once a convenient prop and chilling reminder of our own mortality. 

Hangin’ Out With Charles (2004). Cast: Andy Hopper, Rena Kosnett. Written and Directed by Jason Underhill - A cameraman spends an afternoon with Charles, some dude from the high desert, and his girlfriend, Shannon, hours before a deadly car crash. 11 minutes.

Parsley, Sage, Winona & Time (2004). Winona Ryder’s performances from three of her most popular films (Girl, Interrupted, Heathers and Beetlejuice) are fluidly edited into a montage depicting Ms. Ryder as an innocent bystander to her friend’s suicide, a murderer, and a suicidal teenager. 5 minutes.

جامعتي الحبيبة

• هل تشعر بأنك واضح

أهلا وسهلا بالأحباب..

Jason Underhill, b. 1982 in Los Angeles. Jason’s work has been screened and exhibited internationally in the U.S. and around Europe, at venues including The Royal Academy of Art, London, Sala Rekalde, Bilbao, The Hayward Gallery, London, Dan Graham Gallery, Los Angeles, and Landmark at Bergen Kunsthall, Bergen, Norway. This past November, his film Universal City was screened at the ICA, London, part of Against Gravity, curated by Catherine Borra. In 2008, Jason’s film JESSIE LIVES was selected for Bloomberg’s New Contemporaries, an annual traveling exhibition of emerging artists in the UK. Jason received his MFA from Goldsmiths, University of London in 2009 and his BFA from CalArts in 2005. He lives and works in Los Angeles.

email: underhill.jason@gmail.com

Born: 1982 in Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

Lives and Works in Los Angeles, CA

AWARDS

2008 Bloomberg New Contemporaries

EDUCATION

2009 MFA Art Practice, Goldsmiths, University of London, London, U.K.

2005 BFA Fine Art, California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), Valencia, California, U.S.A.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2011:

Waiting for Suicidal Hares International Video Art Festival, Moon Event Space, 501 Warehouse, Chongoing, China. Curated by Jon Moscow.

Translate/Transcribe, Central House of Artists, Moscow, Russia.  (Universal City, 2010 screening). Curated by Ian Gonczarow.

‘The Lost Works of Johan Riding’, British Art Show 7, Glasgow Centre for Contemporary Arts, Gallery of Modern Art and Tramway.(Performance and Screening in collaboration with Craig Burnett, Olivia Plender and Nick Santos-Pedro; traveling exhibition).

E.S.P. TV #2, The Schoolhouse, New York, NY.

‘The Lost Works of Johan Riding’, British Art Show 7, Hayward Gallery, London(Performance and Screening in collaboration with Craig Burnett, Olivia Plender and Nick Santos-Pedro; traveling exhibition)

SAMVAAD, National artists’ film screening tour in India; 1, Shanthiroad, Bangalore, and FICA (Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art) in New Dehli. Universal City (2010) selected.

2010:
The Lost Works of Johan Riding, British Art Show 7, Nottingham Contemporary Museum (in collaboration with Craig Burnett, Olivia Plender and Nick Santos-Pedro; traveling exhibition).

Against Gravity, ICA, London. Curated by Catherine Borra.

2010 Bergen Biennale: Next Generation, The Woodmill, London (The Road to Margaritaville screened). Curated by Gandt, London.

Perform Now! 2010, Material Press, Los Angeles

Slab in Temporary Space, The Temporary Space, Houston. Curated by SLAB!, Los Angeles.

Justin Gainan & Jason Underhill, Dan Graham Gallery, Los Angeles

2010 Bergen Biennale, Landmark, Bergen Kunstall, Bergen, Norway

Sing Your Heart Out (It’s Karaoke), Mandrake Bar, Los Angeles

Into the Great Wide Open: New Video from Los Angeles, The Woodmill, London

2009:

The Filmic Conventions, Form Content, London.

Zoo Art Fair (with Form Content), London

Goldsmiths MFA Degree Exhibition, Goldsmiths, University of London

Group/Grope, Area10, London. Curated by Trevor Kiernander.

The Moving Index 2008-2009, artoffice.org, Los Angeles

“Nice Suit”, Bethnal Green Working Mens Club, London

2008:

Event Horizon, GSK Contemporary, Royal Academy of Art, London. Programmed by Hyunjoo Byeon.

Bloomberg New Contemporaries, Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool & Rochelle School, London

Exchange Rate 2008, Remys, Los Angeles & CUNY: Habeas Lounge, New York

Pick 4, The Apple Tree, London

Metamorphose, Islington Art Factory, London

Calypso, Sala Rekalde, Bilbao (Videotheque Project curated by Haizea Barcenilla)

Reading the Artist, Laurie Grove Baths, Goldsmiths College, London

Gold & Delicious, The Apple Tree, London

2005:

Jenny, The Girl With No Eyes, Lime Gallery, CalArts

Traffic, Gallery D-301, CalArts

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

- Gettell, Oliver: Hot List: Jason Underhill, Los Angeles Times, March 22, 2010

- Colin Perry: Emerging: Jason Underhill, MAP, Spring 2010

- Holly White: Dialogue: Zoo, 2009 (Review),  MurmurArt, October 2009

- Jonathon Jones: The Next Generation of YBAs: What Does the Future Hold?, The Guardian, July 15, 2009

- Jonathon Jones: Catherine Yass in Conversation with Four Recent Goldsmiths MFAs, The Guardian, July 15, 2009

Happy Birthday, Paloma Darkness.

The Hillbillies:

These guys are a group of aging friends from high school that use the shooting location as a place to corral underage vixens from the local community college, with the promise of ‘partying in the real wild west’ (there’s an exterior set from a Western Town somewhere on the location – it’s a novel backdrop for the gang’s bonfires, and also provides a nice buffer zone to defend potential date-rape charges; although how many times can the local police file the same ‘I-woke-up-in-front-of-a-Pony-Express-Depot-on-a-street-that-doesn’t-exist-on-a-map’ claim before someone catches on? The answer: twelve and counting). Their leader is named Brecy, Jr. (pronounced ‘Bryce Junior’), who is the son of the Bryce Sr., the dyslexic property owner.

Also, Brecy Jr. and his gang moonlight as security on the show.

Night Shift:

Last spring, I worked the night shift as a production assistant on a reality show. For 12 hours between 6:30pm and 6:30am I was the only person awake on a television set, way out in the desert, where nobody lives . I’ve been writing about it lately, and didn’t think I had any photos from that time until found these on an old cell phone, mostly taken as dusk settled on the set, or at dawn, from a gas station.

The sun wakes up: 4:45am the ARCO on Sand Canyon Road.

Night Shift:

Night Shift Reality

Straight From The Horse’s Mouth

I walked up to the Hollywood sign today. Actually, I walked up a long, winding driveway - the work-road to Sunset Ranch, where movie horses live in stables. It sits directly below the mesa where the Hollywood sign is it’s most photogenic. I caught a tourist videotaping me as I texted from the overlook, and I almost said something to him when a horse whinnied from below me. “Nice one, Huckleberry!” a woman said.

Ben Smith, Ayana Hampton, Alexis Hudgins, Myself, shooting Universal City.

Last week, Alexis Hudgins and I took Shirley Tse’s class from CalArts to the set of a reality show called ‘How Do I Look?’. I don’t remember what’s going on in the foreground of this picture (I snapped it while we were waiting in the studio audience for the taping to start) but that large box with the photo of the woman on it spins around to applause as the contestant walks out of it, revealing to her family, friends, stylist and audience a transformed self.

This squirrel proudly overlooked my twin brother’s backyard from his office window in San Francisco.

Emma Hunt let me use her studio while I edited Universal City. It had a great view from Bermondsey towards Tower Bridge and the glassier parts of London. 

Me and Emma Hunt in her studio in London a few months ago.

Crazy for You, 2008 - 8 1/2 x 11 inches.

At the Newstand at the intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Cahuenga. Someone who’s not me would have an easier time identifying this guy (Richard Speck? Tom Ford?); I just liked the way the plastic holder split his face in half, giving the right side some dimension, lending some virtue to his half-smile.

Dr. Roger Quallen (silhouetted) over excerpted footage of Out of Wack (1978/2010), From The Lost Works of Johan Riding, The British Art Show 7, Nottingham Contemporary Museum, England.

This one’s from the cemetery party scene in Jessie Lives (2006).

This is a production still from a video called B.Y.O.B.B.Q. (2009). This shot is from a scene that was cut from the final edit; it’s a one-sided conversation that Tilda (Roxie Fuller), has with her friend, ‘Danny Son-of-A-Mother’, while visiting his tombstone.

Solstice Canyon. It’s a hiking trail that’s really just a 2 mile-long driveway through Malibu Canyon, leading up to a large mansion that burnt down in 1982. Aside from having any walls, doors or furniture, the house is still very well preserved.

Here’s one of the 9 chimneys:

The House, Entrance:

Two shot on the driveway/hiking trail: