This piece is an experimental conceptual series where I work with the body and explore a sense of claustrophobia and isolation. How we seek a connection to nature and other humans but being confined by our own minds. I am looking at the juxtaposition between the everyday mundane and the surreal; the ethereal, how life is a constant flow of introspection, aspirations, anticipations, disappointments and isolation. The imaginative and the beautiful meets the dark and somber. With inspiration from artists such as Francesca Woodman and Vicky Langan I experiment with the human body and how it relates to the physical and psychological spaces.
Vicky Langan is a Cork based experimental video artist that participated in TULCA in Galway last year. I went to see her (and Maximilian Le Cain) video piece 'Inside' (60 min) in November. It was a fantastic piece; comedic, absurd, multilayered, poetic. It depicts a woman's inner life and her journey through different mental
stages and psychic breakdown. It reminded me in some aspects of Paddy Jolley's piece 'The Drowning Room', the domestic rituals, the feeling of absurdity and the surreal. Tasks such as eating, chopping wood
etc are done in silence; tense and at the same time aloof. It is both absurd, perverse, slightly comedic, dreamlike,
dark (monotonous industrial soundtrack) and quite beautiful. The piece got me
more interested in making my own soundscape, experiment with different sounds
and see if I can make ambient soundtrack to my own work, rather than
collaborate with a sound artist. I don't mind working with someone else though,
it can be a rich experience if done right, and if they understand what the
piece needs. I loved the visual effects (blurred lens), the suspenseful eeriness, the isolation, the experimental performance. I am drawn to that in my own work; pushing the limits in body performance, not being afraid of letting go and let what's inside out. Manifest the "crazy" and the absurd. Visit her website for more info.
Me and my class, 4th year Photography, Video & Film had a three day exhibition in December just before the break. We had our work installed in the Church Gallery on Clare Street, the LSAD campus. It was a successful event that was met with appreciation from the visitors.
I displayed two images, from a series I took in my house after a fire had happened.
The statement:
Photographs that
convey a ‘sense of place” blend the physical characteristics of a scene,
landscape or object with the mysterious essence that emerges from gradually and
perhaps unconsciously inhabiting a place over time. The photograph ceases to
become an objective document. Instead, it takes on a particular feeling that is
invested with something that is often intangible, revealing a deeper
understanding of what lies beneath the surface.
Returning to a place that once used to be a home and revisiting the remains after a fire was a means to regain control after feelings of complete powerlessness. Through my work, I could create something new from a near death experience, that gave myself a sense of understanding and healing. When flames and soot destroy a home, it transforms it into a melancholic, silent skeleton; a morbid beauty takes shape and invites an investigation in memory and trauma.
Images from the opening night and the other artists work:
At the moment I am working on a video piece concerning mental illness and suicide, especially regarding males in Ireland. The finished piece will be exhibited at the final year show at LSAD (June). This is my Statement of Intent:
In my practice my main concerns is the human mind and
psychology, and in this final year project I wish to explore the stigma of
mental illness, with focus on males and the high suicide rate in Ireland. My
medium will be a short film that will include the element water as it
symbolizes birth, protection, weightlessness, but also death; the rivers in
Ireland have too many times been the last resort for many people who are
suffering.
There is a reflective element to
moving water, almost hypnotizing and comforting - it can bring peace. On the
contrary water can also be overpowering, suffocating, just like the struggles
of mental illness can be, hence I like to use the element as a physical
manifestation of the different psychological states. I’d like to explore the
notion of finality - how in the moment of decision can be regretted and
possibly changed.
In an exhibition space I would install the piece
on multiple screens, possibly in a small room on different walls, where one can
walk in and sit down and be surrounded by the visuals and sounds; making it an
immersive and intense experience for the viewer. It is an invitation to the
emotional journey one can go through
Clare Langan is an Irish film and video artist who I have been following for a while now, she has done some amazing video work. She is a huge inspiration especially for the project I am working on now with her use of water, performance and sound.
When I view Flight From the City there are several things I think and
feel. I love the beauty of it, the ethereal and poetic feel and the lovely
harmonic dance between the woman and girl. I see a (human) connection, a
closeness like they were mother and daughter that goes through different stages
of life. Connection/disconnection, intimacy/distance, love/hate,
hellos/goodbyes and so forth. It is melancholic and touches on death with their
eyes closed floating peacefully in a dark black void. There is both death
(void, emptiness) and birth (womb). The music is made by Iceland composer Johann Johannsson.
I can see similarities to the famous painting of John Everett Millais,
‘Ophelia’, which is a depiction of the drowning of Ophelia in Shakespeare’s
Hamlet. She was heartbroken and driven to insanity after learning her father
was killed by her lover Hamlet, so when she fell into the river picking flowers
she didn’t fight it, instead she were singing peacefully. Note: there are
plenty of other versions of this painting, both in art and contemporary
photography, but only with women; could I do the same with a man, laying in
water surrounded by flowers?
More about Clare Langan and her work on her website
We were shown her work in class, her video piece ‘Unstrung’ (2007)
stayed with me as the concept and piece itself is close to my own ideas of what
I’d like to do.
I looked up other stuff of her first and I’d like to mention her video
piece ‘Black Tears’ (2010), in which she is doing a study on grief. The video
piece is very simple; it is a close up on a woman's face with a red background
and the woman is crying. That’s the only thing we get to see for however long
the piece is (can only find clips from it). Crying and showing sadness can make
people uncomfortable and awkward, we don’t know how to respond if someone is
crying and we ourselves are feeling upset, in many situations we would
try to hold the tears back. This woman is crying openly and for the
viewer there is nothing else to turn to, there is only her face and her tears,
which forces us to face her pain. It can provoke both feelings of
sadness/empathy, but also a feeling of discomfort, which could lead to a
protective laughter or nervous giggles. This is an element I’d like to include
in my video; a close up of someone who is crying. Especially as I am discussing
specifically males and the struggles of suppressed emotions that many of them
have to deal with. Looking at a man crying would be seen as less common than if
it was a woman, it is seen as a weakness. Which is sad as it is cathartic to
cry; resisting or denying painful emotions seems to cause them to grow. The best way to heal your pain may be to feel and express it.
The title 'Black Tears' refers to the blackcolored tears, a black liquid which is present in a lot of Brennan's work. It is supposed to symbolize black bile, which is defined in Merriam-Webster's dictionary as 'a humor of medieval physiology believed to be secreted by the kidneys or spleen and to cause melancholy'. This is mentioned on Brennan's own website, in an article written by Caoimhin Mac Giolla Leith.
Screenshot from the video:
The piece ‘Unstrung’
is similar to ‘Black Tears’ in the way that it is a simple and minimal set up.
We are introduced to a completely empty white room, built like a box with no
decorations or furniture. A woman in a white shirt and shoulder length brown
hair is standing in the right side of the room facing the camera, but looking
away towards a nonspecific point somewhere to the right, outside the frame.
After a few seconds a wave of thick black fluid is gushing in from above
knocking the woman off her feet. The black fluid fills the floor and parts of
the walls, and the woman’s entire body is covered completely by it. She crawls
towards the wall to try and stand up again, looking nervously from where the
liquid came in, only to once again be pushed down to the floor by another wave
emerging from a different location, taking her by surprise. The fluid keeps
coming in from different angles, flooring her repeatedly. Perhaps we can assume
that the white empty room is a metaphor of someone’s mind; a clear, calm,
emotionally stable mind, and the woman who is inside it is unaware of what is
awaiting for her. The black liquid, that we now know is symbolising
melancholia, is attacking her repeatedly and without warning every time. She
gets knocked off her feet, and falls into the fluid, her whole body, face and
hair are saturated. She crawls around in the black liquid for a moment, she
appears disoriented and in distress. She finds the wall and with some struggle
stands back up on her feet. She looks towards the direction where the pile of
liquid came in from and she hunches down slightly, her balance isn’t great, and
she seems prepared and afraid it will hit her again. Momentarily it does hit
her again, however, this time it comes in from a different direction, and once
again takes her by surprise. The fluid is increasing in volume, and makes it
harder for her to move, as she gets sucked down into the excessive ‘ocean of
death’. The video piece has its strength in the minimalist production, less is
more, and it is straight to the point. Being knocked off of one’s feet, and
struggling to get back up is a common metaphor in discussions about depression,
it symbolises the
feeling of helpless and hopelessness.
At the moment I am looking at video artists such as Bill Viola, Clare Langan and Magali Charrier, but I also take inspiration from performance art and abstract expressionism/action painting. Abstract expressionism sought to convey strong emotional and expressive content in the paintings. Chaotic and wild. For me throwing of the paint in my video piece suggests just that; the tension, the arguments, the anger and frustration. The different colors are representing different things; red stands for passion, anger, sexuality, black is power and control and finally green is balance and harmony, growth and rebirth - but could also be seen as jealousy.
I take inspiration from both performance art and abstract expressionism/action painting, the latter because of the use of paint in the video piece. Abstract expressionism sought to convey strong emotional and expressive content in the paintings. There wasn’t any specific rules to follow, it was chaotic and wild. For me throwing of the paint in the video is representing just that; the tension, the arguments, the aggression being thrown back and forth. The different colors stands for different things; red which is passion, anger, sexuality, black is power and control, green balance and harmony, growth and rebirth. Green could also be seen as jealousy, some people might say.
Many of the artists listened to a lot of jazz at the time, which worked well with the artworks as it was improvisational and expressive. They listened to it while painting, which I will do too. I am reshooting the painting scene as I had to do several different cuts due to issues that arose such as wind moving the sheet (when I was outside), not framing it correctly etc. In the video those shots are very jumpy, I’d like to have one long shot and include a second “painter”, so it becomes more of a struggle than only one sided. I will play the track I am using whilst doing it and let it be an improvisation session, let the colors play with each other in a power struggle. The track (Etheric Bodies by A. Chiaramonte) is just that, avant garde/free jazz and I am glad I found it as it is perfect for the video and how it connects to abstract expressionism.
The one artist that feels the most poignant for my own work is Pollock, his dripping, pouring and splashing of paint. There is a control in his creative process but the result is chaotic and aggressive, similar to my own. It is gestural and expressive, it doesn't feel restricted. The creation is where the main focus lays, not with the finished product and the process of the making is an outlet, an expression of the subconscious - just like the painting in my video which is an expression of emotional turbulence:
“All were influenced by Existentialist ideas, which emphasized the importance of the act of creating, not of the finished object. Most had a Surrealist background, inspired by the presence of Breton, Masson and Matta in New York in the 1940s and by retrospectives on Miró (1941) and Kandinsky (1945), and the Abstract Expressionists sought to express their subconscious through their art. “
Blind Spots - Pollock
I looked at Bill Violaand some of his video pieces where he uses the human figure in an abstract manner, for example his two minute video ‘Acceptance’ where a naked woman is portrayed going through some sort of transformation, using water as the metaphor for struggle.
This could be interpreted like it’s a metaphor for life; obscured - birth, life - overwhelming, death - clarity. Or possibly it is a reference to Buddhism and the path to enlightenment (the woman is naked and bold, no more attachment to worldly things). It is a very beautiful piece and I am drawn to the water element in art. What we come from before entering this world. Personally it is a safe space, my childhood was spent in water. I was very comfortable in it, as a toddler I would walk straight out in it and not stop even when my head was covered. My mom had to run after and turn me around so I didn’t dissapear. I also have a vivid memory of being able to breath under the surface. I was in a swimming pool with my family and at one point I fell around in the swimming ring, I was hanging upside down. For many moments I was just hanging there, very peaceful and very safe, looking around at the world around me. I felt no fear and I can’t recall struggling for air. It is quite mystifying but a beautiful experience. My sister came to pull me up in complete panic, she thought I was unconscious. But I wasn’t, I was very happy and relaxed. Bill Viola’s attraction to water sparked my curiosity so looked up what water meant to him and apparently he almost drowned as a six years old.
He said this regarding the incident:
“What he saw at the bottom of the lake was, he said, “the most beautiful world”.
“I sat at the bottom, completely relaxed and I just was waiting—I said to myself, ‘Ok , this must be the next thing.’ And then my uncle realised I wasn’t on the raft and pulled me out.”
The incident, he says, has shaped the kind of art he creates.
“Everything to do with water always is very very connected to me. I have a real affinity towards it. And that’s how my art started, really. And of course when you’re a painter (I was painting in art school), guess what? You’re using water".
I love how it is pitch black with only light source coming from above creating haunting shadows on the face and body. It is made to put her in a very vulnerable position, the light and the water splashing down on her aggressively , and her coming out from the dark into the light. It feels spiritual (Bill Viola is a buddhist). Growth and strength gained by going through something difficult. As a buddhist myself I am drawn to ideas like exploring the human mind, dealing with psychological issues, expansion, growth, introspection etc. His video pieces are slow paced and meditative and focus on the cycle of life with the use of the four elements, and how birth and death are closely connected. ‘Dreamers’ , 2013, is a very beautiful piece depicting seven different people sleeping peacefully in water. It is visually stunning and even though being in water like that could create panic or feelings of claustrophobia that is not what is being portrayed here. Watching these people in the water it feels like they are at peace, like they are in deep meditation.
My piece has a buddhist element to it in the sense that finding peace in relationships (or in any part of life) starts with ourselves. We are projecting and mirroring and the destructive cycle will never stop if we don't take personal responsibility for our thoughts and actions. It is easy to blame the other, or our surroundings, for our unhappiness.
Magali Charrier, a french filmmaker and artist have a couple of videos that has connections to my own, theme vise and the use of the body in a performative way. A piece I really like is ‘Peace Starts With Me’ that was commissioned by PUMA concerning the idea of peace for the World Peace Festival 2011. She combines the use of her own body and drawings, exploring inner personal battles we all struggle with. Similar to my own video, where the struggle is between two people, but it could also be interpreted like it is two sides of the same person. It’s visually stunning, she is skilled at what she does. I like the look of it, the lo-fi grainy feel of the imagery.
Her own statement:
“For films4peace, I was concerned with depicting the intimate battles that occur daily within oneself and the chaotic journey that takes place in order to reach inner peace. A simple setting: one fixed long shot, a human figure in an empty space. Stillness. Suddenly shadows flicker out of the human figure, sporadically first, then frenetically entering and extracting themselves, interfering and frantically disrupting the initial state, building up to darkness. Peace comes as a sudden breath born out of chaos.”
Our photography group and the Printmaking group from LSAD, Limerick went to Berlin in February for five days, while the International Film Festival, Berlinale, was on. I saw a couple of films that was good, especially 'Weirdos', a coming to age film with a Andy Warhol feel to it, but the highlights were the exhibitions I visited. First, I found the whole city to be an exhibition, a space filled with art. The architecture, the street art, the installations, the graffiti. It was all a wonderful mess of color and shapes and walking around soaking it all up felt the same as it does inside a gallery or exhibition space. One of the days I decided to do my own thing as I am quite independent and feel that a big group moving around is taking too long to get from A to B. I understand it helps a lot of people, perhaps the younger crowd, to stick together. It can be overwhelming to come to a new city. It was the same for me when I started to travel. But I have been travelling for such a long time that I prefer to do it alone, or maybe with one or two more people. The day I walked around alone was very sunny and warm, it felt like spring had arrived and there was a light and fluffy energy. People seemed to be in a good mood and there were lots of street performers and people drinking and dancing in the streets. It was a fantastic day and I got to roam around and explore a city that I soon fell in love with.
Omer Fast's exhibition was a full experience that when it was over it lingered with me for hours.
I felt like I was hit by a truck and filled with an emotional turbulence afterwards. There were sadness and inspiration at the same time. We had to walk through a series of different spaces set up in different forms. There were a simulation of an airport waiting gate where people sat down and watched ‘5000 feet is the best’.
Then there was some kind of doctors waiting room as well if you kept walking in and then there were four pitched black rooms where there were four films screening. All the rooms were after each other so to see them all you had to go through one after one, until you come to the last room. Then you have to walk back the same way out, through all the rooms, waiting halls etc. The film that hit me the hardest was ‘Spring’ 2016. It was a short film, around 45 minutes long. Different lives intertwining throughout the film, a series of meetings and dramatic situations happening. A study in disconnection and dysfunctionality in relationships, I felt it was very poignant to my own work, it resonated with my own interests and what I wish to express. I have always been drawn to this kind of cinema, where it is scratching under the surface. Digging deeper into the human mind there is a lot of ugliness that if we face that ugliness we can see our true selves and grow. Hollywood often shows the glossy surface where it is all pretty and smooth, but like Cindy Sherman said "It seems boring to me to pursue the typical idea of beauty, because that is the easiest and the most obvious way to see the world. It’s more challenging to look at the other side”. (1990-91) A lot of Scandinavian (Swedish) drama can be quite dark. Directors like Ingmar Bergman, Lars Von Trier, Lars Noren, Bjorn Runge and so forth often portray the darker side of family relations and the human psyche. They are not afraid of being grotesque and let the dirt surface. That is what I am doing in my video piece at the moment; allowing all of the dirt to come out and then play with that in whatever way feels right. The mean words, the facial expressions, the shouting, the disappointment and frustration, the tension - everything these films are portraying I am too, but in abstract form. And that's how I felt when I saw 'Spring'. The same structure, the mood, the angles, the problems and arguments, the disconnection. There were very intense scenes and a couple of them made the audience squirm uncomfortable in their seats, or jump from the surprise. I really like what he did with the multi screens, how they at times were showing the same picture, then changed and showed a different angle or from another persons point of view. It was beautiful and powerful.
'Spring is an expansion of 'Continuity' with similar narrative and relationships. The story revolves around a teenage boy and an older male escort who are both engaged by the couple, Daniel's parents, and whose paths cross violently on the streets of a wealthy German suburb. A portrait of family life in which roles are constantly shifting, 'Spring' touches on issues of loss and recovery, drug addiction, small-town crime and the portrayal of masculinity in an increasingly global economy. There seem to be a few more stories in 'Spring' that in some ways merge at different times in the film. It has some very dark scenes, for example a rape scene with a young man in the military. it starts with two men being intimate, cuddling and kissing in a soft gentle manner. If we suddenly are skipping ahead in the narrative or it is the same men it is not exactly clear, but suddenly there are more men in the room, no words spoken, and we see a man get a towel pressed hard against his mouth so he can't scream, we see him being held down by the other men and his pants being pulled down. It is very intense and uncomfortable to watch but the scene cuts there and we are spared all the graphic details. The sound used in that scene (and other scenes) is interesting, it is jarring and non-melodic, similar to the track I am using in my own video.
The whole exhibition had a sense of disconnection about it; the impersonal waiting rooms, the dysfunctional relationships, the at times surreal narrative. It was an immersive experience, I would have loved to stayed longer but we had to go. What inspired me most was the multi screens and it gave me a few ideas for the exhibition in May. Another immersive exhibition we went to was artist Hanne Lippard's at KW. It wasn't as dark as Fast's, it did bring on a soothing and meditative feeling, but also some reflection and existential melancholia. We wandered around in KW where there was another exhibition which I din't pay attention to, and in a large room there was a beige staircase placed in the middle of it.
I wasn't sure what it was for, I thought at first it was a private area and we weren't supposed to go up there. But there was no stop sign so I went up, not knowing what to expect, I was just curious. Finally up there i hit my head in the ceiling as it was very low. I then realized the staircase and the upstairs room was part of the art work.
A couple of people were sitting up there already and laughed with me when I hit my head, same thing seemed to happen to other tall people. I sat down and looked around. It was a room with with glass windows showing the outside, and a soft salmon pink carpet. Everyone was quiet and just sat there. Like they were waiting for something to happen. I decided to stay and wait, just enjoy the peaceful energy in the quiet room - which would probably not stay silent for too long seeing as there were speakers in every corner. It was a lovely wait, a part of the experience. To wait and be patient, like being in a meditation hall. Then the voice started to speak, it was a female voice that spoke for maybe 10-15 minutes. It was a calming and monotonous voice that at times sounded like it was doing spoken word; it was rhythmic and a play with words. Sounds, structure and language. She posed questions to the listener to reflect on. About life, about the now and the future, why we are here, where we are going, if it all means anything or if it is pointless. The room was a physical extension of her voice and like Omar Fast's exhibition this too became a whole experience to be involved in. Visitors were allowed to sit, stand or lie on the carpet. Stand - if it was possible.
