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 throughClare 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 black colored 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.
