Sheri Wills an artist who works with film, video and sound to make single-channel videos, installations, sound works and live video performances. She explores the material, psychological and philosophical potentials of cinema to reveal small moments that often go unseen and pull forward the emotional content of abstract imagery.
Wills has shown work in one-person exhibitions at venues including the Director’s Lounge in Berlin, the Robert Beck Memorial Cinema in NYC and the Ann Arbor Film Festival. Her films have been screened internationally, such as at the Museum of Modern Art in NY, the Edinburgh International Film Festival, Cinémas Différents in Paris, the International Film Festival in Rotterdam, the London Film Festival, CROSSROADS in San Francisco, Fisura in Mexico City and the Abattoirs Museum in Toulouse, France. Her films are distributed by Light Cone in Paris.
Her collaborations include live video projects with music composed by Jan Jirásek, Charles Norman Mason, Bright Sheng and Ofer Ben-Amots, and video performances with music ensembles, including the NYC choral group Khorikos, the Providence String Quartet, Luna Nova New Music Ensemble, and Ensemble QAT in Montreal, at venues including Roulette in Brooklyn, the Firehouse Space in Brooklyn and the Czech Center in NYC. She has also participated at residencies including the Narva Art Residency in Estonia, At Home Gallery in Slovakia and the Studios at MASS MoCA.
Wills is an American Council on Education Fellow. She came to RISD in 2014 in the position of dean of fine arts and was honored with the Frazier Award for Teaching Excellence at RISD in 2019. She is a recipient of a 2023 Guggenheim Fellowship.
This course is designed as an introduction to the 113-year history of the projected moving image (film, animation, and video). Artistic expression in these forms will be emphasized. Students discover new areas of interest while watching carefully selected examples of films and videos. During all classes, students will view films representing different styles and periods of filmmaking. About half of the classes are devoted to contemporary films. Critical thinking will be encouraged and fostered during classroom discussions. Clear expression of these thoughts will be developed through assigned readings and weekly writing assignments. During the semester, students learn about specific artists, schools of filmmaking, genres, and fields within the history of the film, animation, and video. Students also develop a common language by learning the meaning and proper usage of a glossary of common film terms. At select classes, film artists are present to introduce and discuss their work. Other guests include improvisational musicians who accompany silent films.
Department permission is required to register for this course; this course is not available via web registration. Please contact fav@risd.edu for permission to register.
