Brent Green is an artist, filmmaker and musician whose newest installation, Gravity was Everywhere Back Then, opens at the ASU Museum on Friday.

It’s a complicated work: Green discovered the story of a Pennsylvania store clerk who, in some sort of obsessive, pained way, began building an extravagantly large house after his wife was diagnosed with cancer.

Green made a group of short movies about the man, his house and the couple’s love affair; for his installation at ASU, he’s also rebuilding as much of the house as will fit in the venue’s galleries.

The films are an odd amalgam of documentary, narrative, and stop-motion animation. It’s gotten some poignant reviews:

There are tons of bad movies in this world that you can’t wait for them to be over…. Brent Green’s debut animated feature film, Gravity Was Everywhere Back Then -— which is a magnificent movie —- contains a scene of such devastating heartbreak and sadness that I was practically praying that the film would end before I would have to witness it.

He’s been working on the installation as an artist-in-residence for the past three weeks; on Friday you can see the construction and various of Green’s films, with Green accompanying the showing on guitar.

The event runs from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday at the museum, at Tenth Street and Mill in Tempe on the ASU campus.

Details from the museum here.

Green’s web site is here.

The video above shows Green talking about the project.

Full press release below.

From the museum:

Gravity was Everywhere Back Then, A New Installation by Brent Green

Sep 4, 2010 – Dec 31, 2010 Location: ASU Art Museum Cost: Free Curator: Heather Sealy Lineberry

This fall, the ASU Art Museum will host a new exhibition by well-known artist and filmmaker Brent Green titled, Gravity Was Everywhere Back Then. The project is inspired by the true story of an idiosyncratic house in Louisville, owned by hardware store clerk Leonard Wood. When his wife Mary was diagnosed with cancer, Leonard started building the house room by room, with the tragic hope that his labor would save his wife. Even after Mary’s death, Wood continued to build the house. Over the next 20 years, he strove to bring something as tangible and powerful as his love for Mary into the world.

Gravity Was Everywhere Back Then will feature Green’s version of Wood’s house, transplanted and reconstructed from the artist’s studio in rural Pennsylvania. The house, along with sculptural elements and structures, will be installed in one of the ASU Art Museum’s galleries, where it will appear to be both constricted by and bursting out of the space. Video and sound pieces will be shown inside and around the house to create an immersive environment.

Green will be in residence for three weeks at the ASU Art Museum, Aug. 16 – Sept. 3, installing the exhibition and interacting with students and school groups. Students from MetroArts High School in Phoenix, guided by Sue Chenoweth, and ASU Intermedia students, guided by Angela Ellsworth and Gregory Sale, will work closely with Green in the gallery as he installs his house, sculpture and films.

Green lives and works in a barn in Cressona, PA. His work is a regular feature at Sundance and he has performed at The Hammer Museum, The Wexner Center and The Getty Museum of Art. In 2007, Green screened three works and performed a live soundtrack at the 11th Annual ASU Art Museum Short Film and Video Festival. Recent solo shows include Site Santa Fe (2009) and the Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis (2008). Upcoming exhibitions and performances include the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Berkeley Museum of Art, CA; Site Santa Fe Biennial; the American Visionary Art Museum, Baltimore; and Diverse Works, Houston. As part of MoMA’s exhibition of Creative Capital artists (Green is a 2005 Creative Capital Grant recipient), the Museum will host a screening of several of Green’s short films followed by a live performance with members of the music group Califone and indie rock legends Fugazi.