The Short Films of Amy Linthicum

An early Fluxus-influenced installation by visual artist Amy Linthicum

Local filmmaker/criminal records clerk [it's a new combined major - check your local college catalogs!] Amy Linthicum is a master of cinematic haiku, creating brief but thought-provoking short videos using only her smartphone and small, everyday objects - such as wind-up toys and solar-powered plastic flowers. Though she claims to have no obvious aesthetic influence beyond her own collection of household tchotchkes, this reviewer sees a direct connection to the post-modern principles of the 1960s Fluxus Movement, specifically the films of the (pre-professional widow) visual artist, Yoko Ono.

As she prepares to submit a much longer work (perhaps, rumor has it, even a full-blown 60-second video installation) for consideration in the prestigious 2012 Janet & Walter Sondheim Prize competition, Ms. Linthicum has graciously uploaded the following videos to her YouTube channel amylization.

Six Seconds of Cheer
(Written, directed & produced by Amy Linthicum; 2012; 06 seconds)


Brilliant! And yes, couldn't we all use a few seconds of cheer in these turbulent, dangerous and economically devasting times? The artist cuts to the quick with disarming simplicity.

Happy Squirrel Toy
(Written, directed & produced by Amy Linthicum; 2012; 11 seconds)


"Happy Squirrel Toy" evokes the spirit of German poet Friedrich Schiller's famous "Ode an die Freude" ("Ode to Joy") in enthusiastically celebrating the brotherhood and unity of all mankind, as here expressed by a tiny, plastic, mechanical representation of a carefree mammalia sciuridae playing with a tiny, plastic nut. This creature's joy is measured not in arbitrary mathematical units, but in kinetic leaps and bounds!

Heads up, Maryland Arts Council, attention Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts. There's a new visual arts playa in town, and she's wound-up and ready for her six seconds of fame - maybe even 15 seconds by the time the Sondheim Award Finals roll around this July!