So the weeks seem to be disappearing this semester/term. We are already into week five and I have a fair amount of work to complete before the end of this week. Here is a list of what needs to be finished;
- Critique Talk
- Information Sheet
- Presentation
- Video Diary
I think what would be of value for now is to breakdown those sections into further task which are easily manageable before tomorrow and next Monday.
Critique Talk
- Introduction into work and thinking behind work
- Two artist which I’ve been looking at
- One theorist/thinker
Information Sheet
- Reasons behind the work
- Connected artist
- Outcome and process
Presentation
- Introduction/10 Examples (750 words)
- Theorist/Thinker (750 words)
- Two artist (750 words)
- Conclusion
Video Diary
- Daily updates
What are my priorities at the moment would be the critique talk and the information sheet and what I need for those are connections between my work and thinkers/theorist/artist and what I believe my work is doing or how can I go about enticing another person to become involved with this project.
Firstly I am going to breakdown the outline of this project and what the expected outcomes will be.
- Questionnaire relating to myself (how you perceived me) and our relationship.
- Answers given to questionnaire will then be performed by actor to play the part of the one answering the questions.
- In order for the actor to understand their role, accompanying the answered questionnaire will be a brief description of the other person through my eyes.
- First outcome could just be a single shot interview with the actor playing out the role with their responses being guided along by questionnaire and description.
- Second outcome could be a two way conversation between myself and the one being questioned. These parts will be played by actors and their understanding of who we are or our personalities will come from the questionnaires and descriptions.
That seems to be the basic structure of this work at this precise moment. I think the next step is to think of what themes I am trying to explore through this work and who and why I am using them. Which current/past artist and thinkers are going to guide me in the way I word this document. Here are the themes I believe I am looking at.
- Relationships
- Disconnected Relationships
- The Past/Present
- Memories as Truth
- Identity as Performance
- Impression Management
- Re-enactment/Recreation of Memories/Histories (Personal)
I’ve found a couple of artist and thinkers which I need to research thoroughly and I shall do that in this post. They are;
Artist
- Candice Breitz
- Guy Maddin
- Julain Rosefeldt
- Jeremy Deller
- Sophie Calle
Thinkers/Theorist
- Ervin Goffman
- Mark Granovetter
- Judith Butler
- Jenny Sunden
I feel the first step from here is to review the artist and their works and breakdown what I can take. Either in terms of stylistic/artistic methods and approaches or parts of/wording for their rationales.
Lets start with the artist.
First up is Candice Breitz. I am going to initially explore her art project Love Story. This work consist of a seven channel video installation in where six individuals whom are seeking refuge from oppressive circumstances are interviewed about their situation. Its divided into two sections, the first part you enter into a room where you are greeted with a single montage video consisting of snippets taken from the original interviews and performed by two well known actors. They are Alec Baldwin and Julianne Moore. They are staged in a green room and nothing else. You then move onto the next area where the original interviews are displayed on six different screens without any adjustments.
What do I take from this particular approach to art and art making, since I clearly disagree with whatever she is trying to question or engage with through an imagined audience. What are the aspects that I want to make clear in my work through using her language? I think these might be it;
- I enjoy the distancing of people and events or relationships and memories from the actually story tellers. Even though she is questioning the empathic nature of our society and how we seemingly connect more easily with the reconstructed over the original, I feel I’m wanting to use the actors in place of myself and my connections as a way to disconnect the audience from any actuality. What I mean by that is I want any narrative or rationale the audience comes away with to be a complete fabrication (even though I believe they will construct their own narrative no matter what is before them). For them to become lost within the movement and words of the actor, forgetting that its all staged and the actors never had any real contact or connection with those they are portraying.
I am not really taking anything else from her as an artist or anything else from this work. As I stated in a previous post, I completely disagree with all she is questioning and her approach to these topics. So I shall move onto another artist whom may inspire far more within their work.
Now I am going to explore Guy Maddin and specifically his work, My Winnipeg. Unfortunately I haven’t seen it yet so my understanding of this work comes from the words of those who have reviewed it. Firstly, I’ll give a brief introduction into who he is;
(born February 28, 1956) is a Canadian screenwriter, director, author, cinematographer and film editor of both features and short films, as well as an installation artist, from Winnipeg, Manitoba. His most distinctive quality is his penchant for recreating the look and style of silent or early-sound-era films. Since completing his first film in 1985, Maddin has become one of Canada’s most well-known and celebrated film-makers.
And now a brief description of the film;
My Winnipeg is a 2007 film directed and written by Guy Maddin with dialogue by George Toles. Described by Maddin as a “docu-fantasia,”[2] that melds “personal history, civic tragedy, and mystical hypothesizing,”[3] the film is a surrealistmockumentary about Winnipeg, Maddin’s home town. A New York Times article described the film’s unconventional take on the documentary style by noting that it “skates along an icy edge between dreams and lucidity, fact and fiction, cinema and psychotherapy.”[4]
My Winnipeg began when Maddin was commissioned by the Documentary Channel, and originally titled Love Me, Love My Winnipeg.[5] Maddin’s producer directed “Don’t give me the frozen hellhole everyone knows that Winnipeg is,”[1] so Maddin cast Darcy Fehr in the role of “Guy Maddin” and structured the documentary around a metafictional plot that mythologizes the city and Maddin’s autobiography.
Now what shall I take from this work which can adequately describe my work in order for it to carry any weight with the assessors. I think this is continuing the trend from the previous artist but here I go;
- This work more so than Breitz work, really embellishes the historical events of his childhood and his time spent in Winnipeg. Even though most of the events are greatly exaggerated and at times completely fabricated, the sense that there is a connection to his past. That you are witnessing something that possibly happened but are never quite sure when it drifts away.
- Using actors in place for myself and others with whom I’ve had the pleasure of sharing the same space with, is a way to continue this separation from fact and fiction. The playing out of these roles may give them impression that is acting out past relationships/events but how much of this memory is fabrication of myself or the other person or fact doesn’t become obvious to an onlooker.
- Recreating old memories and past events through a lenses of distortion (actors and constructed narrative).
That is all I can think of presently for this artist. I will be making many edits over the next couple of days whenever I can think of ideas that I want to borrow from this artist. For another artist which I feel I might not take much from, Julian Rosefeldt and more specifically his work, Manifesto. This work consist of a 13 channel-film installation where actress, Cate Blanchett, is reading out manifestos from varying people across the ages. They range from Futurists, Dadaists, Fluxus artists, Suprematists, Situationists, Dogma 95 and many other artist. Cate positions herself in the shoes of everyday humans while reading these sacred text out. From a homeless man to a puppeteer. After watching some of these videos, I’m not entirely sure what I am trying to retrieve from this work other than what I’ve stated from above. But I’ll try my best;
- The continuation of separation between the original and the recreation or fabrication of the past or memories. Moving acts of the past into re-constructed instances of the present. A way to present something which is no longer immediately available for the viewer before the work.
I feel I am struggling a bit to find any other connection between the artist, their work and the work which I am trying to produce. The only aspect I can think which I find interesting within their work is the connection between using actors to play a role of someone. To fill in as a representation of something which no longer is. Not so much with Candice because she did include the originals but for the other two so far, they have definitely used a stand in. Not sure what else I can take from them or their work. Possibly the next two artist will bring forth different approaches for this work. Now onto a particular work by Jeremy Deller. This work is entitled The Battle of Orgreave. The work consist of a video re-enactment of striking miners being chased and run down by police forces. It was performed by 800 re-enactors and 200 former miners who were part of this historical event. Now this is slightly different to the previous ones as it doesn’t have the same immediate lens of interference. Where you can recognise that this is all an act that is rather distanced from the original. This work rather convincingly places you into the moment where striking miners faced off with the local police force. I think I know what I can take from this work. First I need to quote Jeremy from a section about this piece.
“I was asking the re-enactors to participate in the staging of a battle that occurred within living memory…”
- The idea of using living memories as means to create and construct a fabricated drama or reality for another person to experience. Basically to take my own recollections and the recollections of another (of our experiences of one another) to recreate their personality and my own. This comes is the form of actors playing a part based upon information received via various sources (questionnaire/my description) which are text based only. Ultimately the end result is entirely dependent upon the interpretation of the actor.
- Re-examining old moments of existence in order to find clarity, either personal, social or historical. As a means to investigate an area of life which has slowly slipped away and the connections which seem so easily available have become blurred and are in need of restoration. This restoration, although will come in the form of re-imagined experiences, will be the way in for an outsider.
Finally, the last artist which I shall be investigating goes by the name of Sophie Calle. I am going to look a series of work this artist has produced to get an understanding of what I may take from her. This first work, The Hotel – Room 47, finds the artist earning a job at the Venetian hotel as a chambermaid for three weeks. During this period she investigates the belongings, possessions, and evidence left by the occupants in order to paint a picture of those who presence are no longer obvious. The next project which I feel is closer to mine that her first is called Address Book. She was invited to publish a series of articles for a french newspaper. She had recently found an address book on the street which she quickly copied and returned to its owner. From here she decided to call various people from this book to paint a picture of the owner and someone she had never truly met. These writings laid next to pictures of their favourite things. Now what can I obtain from these two works;
- It is an interesting approach to construct an identity from small fragments of information, especially when you don’t have connection with the person who is being re-created. This somewhat applies for my scenario except I had more interaction with the people being portrayed. Then again, all this is based upon mine and their memories of events long gone.
That is all I can really gather from this artist for the time being. Now its onto the thinkers.
SIR King Tim Fox 