Monday 30 September 2013

Omer Fast - An Artist Talk

For the first visit of the London and South East study group we (Siegfried & myself) attended an artist talk given by Omer Fast at The Imperial War Museum. The museum is showing his 30 minute video '5000 Feet is The Best'. It is a shame that all the members of our fledgling group could not attend (about 6 people I think at present) as it was a fascinating insight in the artists creative process.

Firstly I will say hats off to Siegfried for knowing that we would not have a problem getting into the sold out event. The talk was free but ticketed. We didn't have any but they just let us in anyway - something I would not have even thought to try before!

Omer Fast began by showing us a clip of an earlier piece of work 'CNN Concatenated' and talking about the events in his life that led up to the creation of the work. It was a video piece using CNN newsreader footage. The footage was cut a word at a time from different speakers. The words are then re-composed by Fast to create his own sentences forming a new grammatical structure - particularly effective was the use of indrawn breath to create pace and timing to show the beginning of the sentences.

Fast then spoke about trauma and how it underpins a lot of the work that he produces. He didn't specify whether this was personal or more general trauma although he did relate a family anecdote. He told us the story of a time when his father was a young boy who had run home bleeding after being hit in the head by a stone. When the boys father opened the door and saw the blood he slapped his son around the face. Fast tells us that his father shared this story with him and explained that the grandfather had been a Holocaust survivor and the violence was his way of dealing with what he had experienced himself. We were then shown a piece of work that grew from this anecdote in which his father narrates this story whilst we see a clip from The Terminator movie. The clip shown is a scene where the Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) arrives at the house of Sarah Connor and when she answers the door guns her down.

I found this multiple layering of stories fascinating. It was very disconcerting to hear the fathers calm narration against the Terminator clip which is visually different but also connected in a way. In fact the beginning of the clip shows Arnie searching through the phone book for all the S Connors so he can annihilate them one by one. This seems to me to be a reference to the Holocaust part of the narration -  thereby combining the actual boyhood events with the father's later analysis.

Fast then goes on to talk about his interest in non-linear narrative and how he likes to use a doubling effect, voice overs, and dissected scenes to achieve this. The narrative thread skips around in time or duplicates itself with minor changes. As a viewer it is difficult to find a path through the work but it held my attention all the same. For instance in another piece 'The Casting' Fast takes an army sergeant's spoken narrative of two events, a war and a personal experience, and edits the soundtrack so that he is able to create new words and put them into the mouth of the narrator. This creates fictionalised events that seamlessly blend with the narrated memories. This time, unlike the 'CNN Concatenated' piece we do not see the narrator (therefore hiding the edits) but instead actors play out the unfolding story. I had no idea that some of the narration had been edited to create new memories until the artist explained this after the clip - it was so skilfully done.

I found the talk and Omer Fast's methods and process fascinating. I've been getting ready to make a short test video to go on my blog in the next couple of weeks. Nothing major, just some stills and video that I want to put together and experiment with. Seeing Fasts effective use of non-linear narrative has inspired me to experiment.

Thursday 26 September 2013

Curiosity - Art and the Pleasure of Knowing

Curiosity - Art and the Pleasure of Knowing is an exhibition that needs more than one visit. I went twice and thoroughly enjoyed myself both times. There was more than enough to see and I could easily go back again. Based at Margate's Turner Contemporary, the exhibition encompasses all manner of art and artifacts. These are collated around the idea of the cabinet of curiosities and collecting in general. The exhibits range from a case of beautiful glass-blown sea creatures, ethnic masks, photography, film, installation art, drawings and some stuffed animals. Personally, I have never thought taxidermy an appropriate pursuit to inflict on an animal but there you go.


Gerard Byrne - Three Connected Sites, 2001 - ongoing. And Figures, 2001 (stills)   

There was so much to take in and I will concentrate mostly on the photography. The first piece of work I want to talk about is by Gerard Byrne. His work 'Three Connected Sites' consisted of three gelatin silver prints - images of driftwood by the shores of Loch Ness contorted into strange shapes by weather and water. Byrne is interested by the matches or disparity between text, images, and reality. He has worked on a decade long project based on the stories and myths that have grown up around the Loch Ness Monster.  The black and white images in themselves are nicely done and are evocative of a cold and bleak walk along a Scottish shoreline. It is the knowledge of the intent of the artist that adds complexity. The images made me think about the strange contorted shapes and how these lumps of wood have most likely been the source of the myth of the monster. How images such as these are then represented through photography (as truth) by the media (either by accident or design). The way that the reading public is eager for such stories (regardless of truth or authenticity) and how easily myths can grow out of that is fascinating.

Incidentally, the presentation of the images is impressive. Byrne had put them inside plexi-glass boxes seamlessly fixed to the gallery wall. The effect was clean and simple and played into the exhibitions concept of collecting. There was also an accompanying piece of film 'figures, 2001' on 16mm film, again in black and white, that explored a field with a caravan and hinted at the slightly crazy concept of Nessie hunters.


Center For Land Use Interpretation - Los Alamos National Laboratory Rolodexes c.1965-78

My only analysis of a non-photographic piece of work is the collection of Rolodexes complete with business cards originally owned by Ed Grothus, a lab technician at Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico. As a set, the Rolodexes have a very strong 'Mad Men' vibe about them. They are cool objects to look at. If they weren't behind glass I would definitely have the urge to flip through the business cards inside. The cards (from the 1970-80s) are flipped open to present information about various contractors and suppliers engaged in business with Los Alamos. A slice of time is presented that engages the viewer to consider the process of Defence Spending, Industry, Capitalism, and how interconnected those forces are to powerfully affect economies and political agendas.

The exhibition catalogue 'Curiosity' gives some information about the aims of CLUI as an organisation:

The Center for Land Use Interpretation (CLUI) is a 'research and education organisation interested in understanding the nature and extent of human interaction with the earth's surface'. Since its founding in 1994 in Los Angeles, the Center has amassed a vast archive of images, data and source materials that are used to interpret humanity's imprint on the landscape as a 'cultural inscription', evidence to be read, decoded and understood. (Turner Contemporary, 2013.)


Corinne May Botz - The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death, 2004

The artist has photographed the most bizarre dioramas created in the 1940s by Frances Glessner Lee. She was the first woman to work for the Legal Medical Programme at Harvard and used the dioramas, depicting gruesome murder scenes from real cases, to train detectives. The dioramas were built to the scale of one inch to one foot.

The images that May Botz has created are shot from close-up as if the camera is in the room itself - though it is obvious that we are not looking at reality - more like a dolls house. Not all of the diorama is shown. The selected scenes are lit as if real sunlight is coming through a window or a harsh shadow is cast from an overhead bulb that make the subject appear all the more real but yet unreal - almost like a Gregory Crewdson image. They are macabre. The images show the aftermath of a murder - with clues to be looked for. There is a body of a woman on the floor by an open oven - a tiny loaf of bread is visible. A cot in a bedroom with what shockingly looks like blood spatter on the wallpaper above it. The scenes were gripping but repellent. I was reminded of Weegee crime scene images but this time in full colour.

It is interesting how the context of the dioramas have changed from a tool to be used in seminars, to an archive piece that is still sometimes used for its intended purpose, and through to May Botz's photographs as a piece of artwork that sits in a gallery space.


Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin - The Polaroid Revolutionary Workers Movement, 2013

At first glance these dual exposure Polaroids are perplexing. The frame is split into two - depicting a left and right image. The subject appears to be of vegetation although the composition is not identical. One is generally darker than the other or has a colour cast to it. On reading the artists statement I was amazed to find that the Polaroid technology was used in Apartheid era South Africa. The equipment had a special flash setting for correct exposure of dark skin and was used to make ID card images.

Looking again at the images of twigs and bits of shrubbery I tried to analyse the artists intent and came to the conclusion that I was looking at the same thing in both halves - nature. It was only the use of the technology that changed their surface appearance and made the two images appear different. In other words we are dealing with the concept of "the other."


Nina Katchadourian - A Continuum of Cute, 2007-2008. Seat Assignments: Lavatory Self Portraits in the Flemish Style, 2011

Katchadourian had a number of different pieces of work in the exhibition. 'A Continuum of Cute' showing a selection of small animal images arranged on metal tiles, placed side by side, on a long strip of metal shelf is worth a mention. The tiles are arranged from the ugliest to the cutest as categorised by the artist. It was very tempting to re-arrange the tiles according to my own ideas. I like the concept and presentation of this work. There was a dynamism to the piece showing that photographs don't have to be just mounted and framed on a wall.

'Seat Assignments' is a series of work involving the artist in-flight and using her camera phone to create art with materials at hand. The work is still growing and has several categories to the series. The one on display at the Turner Contemporary was the 'Lavatory Self Portraits collection'.

...secluded in an aircraft toilet, Katchadourian swiftly improvised mock-Flemish headgear and ruffs, and struck uncannily apt and familiar poses, which she snapped with her phone. (Turner Contemporary, 2013.)

I love the performance aspect of this work. Using photography to capture the end result of an artistic process is something that I find very fascinating and something I may pursue myself in the future. The images themselves are very effective and clever self-portraits of an artist engaged in her own individual artistic practise.

I thoroughly enjoyed looking at her work and I've made a note to take a further look.

Unfortunately the exhibition has now closed but if it resurfaces anywhere else I thoroughly recommend a visit.





References:

Turner Contemporary Gallery, Margate, Kent. (2013) Exhibition catalogue: Curiosity - Art and the Pleasure of Knowing. South Bank Centre, London, UK: Hayward Publishing.