The Shapeshifters Cinema Performance Group (SSCPG) is comprised of Ellie Vanderlip, Kathleen Quillian & Gilbert Guerrero—who happen to be not only the directors of Shapeshifters Cinema, but also practicing artists themselves. The group formed organically in 2023 to provide expanded multi-projector visuals for the monthly Do-Over Music series, organized by Lisa Mezzacappa and Jordan Glenn and hosted at Shapeshifters Cinema every first Thursday.
Every performance by the SSCPG is unique—created using multiple, moving and still image projectors, found/vintage/handmade 16mm educational films, home movies, film loops, 35mm slides, overhead transparencies and other visual material found, borrowed, and/or appropriated from cultural detritus. These are manipulated in real time using various lenses, prisms, mirrors, color gels and legerdemain to create improvised, ephemeral visual collages of motion, color, light and image. The resulting visuals are inspired by and an extension of the Bay Area's rich history of expanded lumia and projector performances like those presented in Jordan Belson's Vortex Concerts at the Morrison Planetarium from 1957-59 as well as the renowned 1960s and 70s light shows presented at The Fillmore Auditorium and Fillmore West.
Along with monthly performances at Shapeshifters Cinema, the SSCPG was also a featured performer at After Dark: Play of Light at the Exploratorium in March 2025.
Shapeshifters Cinema Performance Group with Evelyn Davis & Jon Arkin at The Exploratorium, March 2025
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Shapeshifters Cinema | 567 5th Street, Oakland, CA 94607