Films vs Video Art

Today we discussed video art and the difference between that and film. Film generally has a linear plot with direction which has the purpose to entertain. It aims to create emotions for the viewer, manipulating one to feel certain emotions while watching. Meanwhile, video art has a completely different narrative structure as it is made to express something, with the freedom of the films narrative form. We watched part of a Matthew Barney film, scenes that involved these bully cars bashing up this other old fashioned car, as well as shots of this man pouring mud in a lift etc. No one knows what it is about, so it can mean anything that the viewer projects onto it. Which is what video art is trying to achieve. I feel bad admitting this, but I found this piece quite tedious and I am sorry for not being able to fully accepting it.

So instead, let's talk about films: video art can be seen as refreshing, as the viewer is not dictated by a story. However, I personally love following a story. Film is a form of escapism for a viewer, it allows for the ability to enter the world of others and to no longer be aware of your surrounding in the real world. For me, a narrative in general, whether it is in a book or in television, it is a relief, a break, to see life through another's eyes. I don't see that as a manipulations (because once the narration has ended, I return to my life and back to me), I see it as a gift to look and feel through another. Being involved in a film, is an exercise in empathy, whereas video art can be quite isolating at times.

We discussed that many films have predictable formulas and endings, which is what makes video art engaging to some, but for me and for many others, sometimes the predictable is comforting. Maybe this is because in the real world, our own lives are not predictable and anything could happen. I'm usually incredibly fussy with films, but when I like something, I can watch it again and again. I guess this makes me boring, but some movies, I find the whole experience reassuring, able to enjoy some films as if I've never seen them before. For example, my all time favourite movie is the 1990 film 'Ghost' with Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore and Whoopi Goldberg. The acting is definitely not the greatest, the story is certainly a cliche and some of the lines are just plain corny to the point of sickening. But I still laugh and cry every single time and the love between the characters of Sam and Molly still makes me smile. And that's what makes a good movie- not the talent, but how it affects a viewer. So even though so many people would cringe when watching this movie and I even make fun of it, if anyone told me it was terrible and criticised, god help them because I'll defend this movie to the end.

Even though I did criticise Matthew Barney's film, I am not saying that video art is tedious. Far from it. I just have a personal preference where I need to have a plot to follow in order to be engaged in a video of any kind. We also watched a short scene from Miranda July's 'Me and You and Everyone We Know' which I really enjoyed. It was an interpretation of the relationship between two people, with the movement of her feet (which is essentially dancing), which is depicting love, of the movements they make of uncertainty and mis-stepping.

Miranda July's 'You and Me and Everyone we know'

Sentence stories

Writing is one of my favourite things to do, and I aspire to one day become a writer. So I was particularly excited about last weeks tutorial, where we did an hour of 'Shut up and write,' which as the name suggests, you shut up and write. I took advantage of that time and continued writing the short story I am working on for my 'Writing Fiction' subject and I was disappointed when the hour was over because I just wanted to continue writing.

This weeks task is to write three short stories that take place within only two- three sentences. This is incredibly difficult, but like all creative writing related things, I'm up for the challenge:

• They met at the premiere of ‘The Hobbit.’ It didn’t take long for them to fall in love. One day, he asked: “Guess what’s in my pocket?" She said yes.

• Her life was vivid, but as time went by, she began to see the world like an impressionist painting. Her memory, like her sight, slowly faded away until she too, diminished from existence.

• The most beautiful guy at the party smiled at me and took my breath away. The police found my body three days later. 

TV versus real life

In the lecture this week, we opened with a brief discussion about TV, with the main point being that it is teaching us (the individual viewer, as well as society) what to think and even how to think.

And that immediately made me think of a lyric from a song by my favourite singer, Marina and the Diamonds:

"Tv taught me how to feel, now real life has no appeal" 

From the song 'Oh No!' which is her own commentary on society, which she she expresses in a sardonic way. In class we spoke about how the everyday viewer of tv doesn't watch it with the intention to be challenged in their thinking, or to actually think too much into a particular concept that a program is introducing. I'm not in any means saying that this is the case for everyone, but as a whole, we are passively watching with our sole purpose being to find entertainment and possibly a form of escapism. And this brings me back to the line of Marina's. 

In the 21st century, we are living in a multimedia world. Everywhere we go, we have access to some form of technology, which allows us to connect with others. And with this, there are many positive things as well as negative things that come from it. The positive being the ability to communicate with friends, share information and ultimately express our views on things happening around the world and in our own lives. The negative being, it is constant. To the point where people are obsessively living through a device and no longer connecting to the physical world around them, instead, we are flourishing in a virtual world. So, while we are able to connect with others in this virtual reality, we are disconnecting from the reality. Well, that is one perspective.

Returning to the thought of escapism, tv provides a seemingly never ending opportunity to enter different worlds, different lives. How many of us have become emotionally invested in tv shows? I know I certainly have. And how many of us have wanted to aspire to become something that you have seen on tv? I know I certainly have. And think we all have. Tv has integrated into our lives, not only has it influenced our views and value according to what we watch, tv actually dictates a large part of our lives too. Scheduled tv programs for example: watching tv has become a daily ritual. 

"If you are not very careful, your possessions will possess you" (Marina and the Diamonds)

Learning to love you more #3

GIVE ADVICE TO YOURSELF IN THE PAST:
Write out a list of practical advice to yourself at a specific age. Begin the list with this header: "Advice To [name] at [age]".  Be very specific with your advice, for example, don't just say "Hold on to your heart," but instead say "Don't go out with Kevin, he will eventually cheat on you. Go out with Jake instead, he is actually cooler." Take this opportunity to redirect yourself towards what you think might have been better. Tell yourself what to do in clear, specific language. 

"Advice to myself at 17"

-When choosing subjects for year 12, don't do maths. Do another humanities subject. Your mentality of "school will be weird without complaining about maths" is the worst logic EVER! You hate maths. You have always hated maths. You're dyslexic with numbers for goodness sake!

-Stop thinking it was your fault that things didn't work out with Bob (fake name). He is treating you like dirt now, by ignoring you for no reason. And he'll realise how much of a dick he was to you in two years time and he will message you out of the blue and ask for an apology. You will have already moved on by then and will be amused. Just stop dwelling in it, it's not worth the energy.

-Don't eat that entire family sized bolognese pizza to yourself in under ten minutes. I know you think it tastes delicious, but you'll be vomiting later that night and not eat pizza again after that.

-When you and your friend want to run through those double doors to make a grand entrance, check that the doors are unlocked before running at full speed. Because running into doors hurts and even though you laugh so hard you can't get up, you will bruise badly.

Learning to love you more #2

DRAW A SCENE FROM A MOVIE THAT MADE YOU CRY:
Rent a movie that made you cry. Fast forward to the exact point that really got you and pause the movie. Now draw this freeze-frame as accurately as possible. Also draw the tv and the table, or surface, that the tv is sitting on.

One of my favourite movies is the French film 'Les Choristes'. It is about an unsuccessful composer, Clément Mathieu, becomes a teacher at a boarding school for boys of "hopeless cases" where he begins a choir.
This scene is when principal of the school fires him and doesn't allow him to say goodbye to his students. But the students, who lock themselves in a room, begin to sing and send out paper aeroplanes with goodbye messages to him. And then you see their hands waving to him from the window. The song 'Cerf Volant' is so beautiful and the gesture, this scene makes me cry every time.

Paper Aeroplane scene from 'Les Choristes'

My failed attempt of drawing it 

Learning to love you more #1

RECREATE A POSTER YOU HAD AS A TEENAGER:
Remember a poster you had on your wall as a teenager...recreate it... scale it down to make it fit on a regular piece of paper. Next, locate a piece of music that you would have listened to at the time when you had this poster. 
If you are currently a teenager, just use a poster and piece of music that you have right now.

I am still a teenager, and my room is filled with heaps of quotes cut out and stuck all over my walls. However, my favourite poster on my wall is of the famous painting 'Il Primo Bacio' of Bouguereau's. It's not a typical 'teenager' poster, but he is one of my favourite artists (alongside Rodin) and this is my absolute favourite painting of his. I saw the real one when I went to Italy when I was twelve, which is where I got the poster, and instantly fell in love with it. The detail is incredible, but because I'm not really that much of an artists,  my poorly drawn representation of it is an abomination to art.

Il Primo Bacio- Bouguereau 

My rough sketch of it 

I have a very eclectic taste in music, so I can't actually think of one particular song that sums up my teenage years. But for the sake of this exercise, I will use the song that is currently playing, which is:
"Weeds" by Marina and the Diamonds, from her new album 'Froot' which came out early last month.

Art review: Yang Fudong Filmscapes

Between the 4th December 2014 until the 15th March 2015, the Australian Centre of Moving Images (ACMI) exhibited works of China’s "most celebrated avant garde filmmaker" (Tulloch, B 2015), Yang Fudong.

Trained at the China Academy of Fine Art in Hangzhou, FuDong spent three months in a vow of silence as part of art training ,which allowed for a heightened sensitivity and the understanding of different ways of communication (gesture and movement) to be developed. This understanding plays a major role in contributing to his art work. Filmscapes features four film installations: The Fifth Night (2010), The Nightman Cometh (2011), The Coloured Sky: New Women II (2014) and East of Que Village (2007).

Walking downstairs and hearing music coming from the bottom, it was dark as you enter the exhibition space. Greeting you was an enlarged image of a man and another of a woman, in black and white and  shadowed, as if fading into the darkness of the wall. Already, the world outside this art space was far away, allowing for the viewers mind to disengage from distraction and to focus on 'China up Close'.

Yang FuDong was born in Beijing in 1971, during the time of the Cultural Revolution in China. This social-political movement has inspired him to explore his generations perception of their identity, as well as defining themselves in the world, through the medium of film. Renowned for his use of 35mm black and white film, Filmscapes  demonstrates his interest with both traditional Chinese painting and the Western cinema. Jim Jarmusch and Jean-Luc Godard, Fudong claims, are some of his influences in filmmaking, amongst the Shanghai films from the 1920's and 30's (ACMI, 2014), which is evident in the first instillation of the exhibition, The Fifth Night. 

The room opened up, exposing a wall with seven screens, which pays tribute to the traditional Chinese scrolls. The viewer sits with a sense of isolation while in the darkness and watching the multiple perspectives on each of the screens The noise was bleak, like the images presented, making the experience eerie and unsettling with the open-ended and somewhat unsatisfying narrative. This film noir piece was shot in a 1930's replica film-set at the  Shanghai Film Shooting Base; the stylistic choice invoking an air of mystery with no particular context being introduced for plot or character. I found out later that each camera used different lenses when filming, which was a subtle addition to the instillation, forcing a new interpretation for me: whether it represents individuals in society and how everyone can look at the same thing, but see something or process that thing completely different to someone else.
Despite feeling disconnected from the piece, due to the lack of conventional story to follow, the unique filming technique- of all angles being shot at the same time- was intriguing and allowed me to continue watching the10 minute and 37 second film with captivation. Fudong's intention may well have been this, to  keep it ambiguous/ open ended, to reflect the viewer’s own indecisive interpretation (the idea of the undrawn part of the work is for the audience to interpret).

'The Fifth Night' 2010

While The Fifth Night allowed for me to hold interest, The Nightman Cometh (though aesthetically pleasing) the surrealist 19 minutes and 21 seconds single film, did not. I found it too busy, with characters from different eras walking in and out of this dream-like snowscape, and  completely spontaneous objects being featured, holding a multitude of symbolic meaning, that it became abusive for the viewer to digest any information. With a surround sound as well, it was too much for me to focus on, as everything in this instillation became meaningless. The film featured a wounded soldier, which Fudong aimed to dramatise "the clash between [the] hero’s social role or ‘mask’, and the more authentic face of his instincts and aspirations" (ACMI, 2014), which I personally didn't recognise.

'The Nightman Cometh' 2011

"Remember the way the wrapper of a candy had a dazzling rainbow colour when you put it against a sunbeam?" (Yang Fudong) Entering the next room and into bursts of vivid colour, The Coloured Sky: New Women II (sequel to New Women 2013) embodied the concept of the surreal. Manufactured and glossed over to be perfect and into the realm of the unsettling unnatural, everything was designed to look as if they were on display. It appeared as though the ladies were dolls in their bathing suits, whose purpose was to  entertain others. Fudong's intention for this five screen piece, was to "examine the secret desires and anxieties of young women as they come of age" (ACMI, 2014) which can be interpreted to be the case when looking at the animals used in the films, eg. the snake, which is an animal that can provoke anxiety. However, I wouldn't interpret this piece as looking at the perspective of women in China, rather, looking at China's history of perception of women. When looking at this artificial dream-like landscape, the exposure of female sexuality can be seen as exploitive, which can ultimately be a commentary on China's history of concubinage. Despite the feeling of unease when observing this instillation, it stimulates the viewer to think about the contemporary idealisation of the female form, that has been constructed by a males fantasy, thus making The Coloured Sky: New Women II a vociferous piece.

'The Coloured Sky: New Women II' 2014

With grainy film, compared to the colourful vivid clarity of the previous room, East of Que Village returns to black and white and raw. Ailing dogs gnawing at skulls of dead animals and the sound of a traditional Chinese high pitched string instruments, this six screen instillation was grotesque and provoked intense emotions of devastation, from a viewer. Stray dogs, people being captured and executed, etc., these horrific themes were a rude awakening by this fabricated 'documentary,' filmed in the rural province of Hebei. The confrontation with death can cause a viewer to respond in contemplation of "what is a life?" while witnessing the contrast between human nature and animal nature. Fudong "was assailed by this feeling of emptiness, as if [he'd] been filming while floating in midair. Struck by a powerful urge to come back down to earth for the next work, [he] turned [his] attention to the real world" (Fudong, ACMI 2014), considering the struggles of these people of rural villages due to the industrialisation that is occurring in China. His intentions were achieved; this piece was certainly a powerful statement.

Yang Fudong's Filmscapes was evocative; exploring themes of identity, the changing climate of China, as well as tradition, making the overall exhibition an educational experience for the viewer. 

References:

Australian Centre for the Moving Image (2014), China Up Close: Between the screens (online), retrieved 13th April 2015 from http://betweenthescreens.acmi.net.au/index.html 

ACMI (2014), Interview with Yang Fudong (online), retrieved 13th April 2015 from https://www.acmi.net.au/acmi-channel/2014/an-interview-with-yang-fudong/ 

Tulloch, Brihony (16th January 2015), Yang Fudong: Filmscapes (online), retrieved 13th April 2015 from
http://screen.artshub.com.au/au/news.aspx?contentTypeCatId=122&CategoryId=5168&ListingId=246888&HubId=3&CategoryGroupId=$%7Bmapfile_categorygroups:%7D 

Zhenhua, Li (2012) ‘Yang Fudong interview’, Bomb, issue 118, pp. 56-63

Bindi Cole revisited

These were the brief notes I took while she spoke to our class:
-art and curating, both are approached in a way of seeing it as an expression- giving an opportunity of having a voice
-over time, giving an immersary experience, to discover and unpack
-an artist that draws upon personal experiences- it is not a constructed story, but instead exposing and exploring things that are real but what others don’t want to be confronted with
-art is therapy, “the more I expose the things that I hide, the freezer I feel” - making a process/ journey for yourself
-about that period of her life (relating to her ‘Octoroon’ piece): prison because of drug dealing, but in that situation because being a drug addict- prison was a turning point and a launching pad for the next part of life and entering a stage of reaching potential
-when exiting prison, people didn’t know about it, but she idd carry shame inside. In this piece, she wanted to reconcile all the aspects/ faces of her life and to break the assumption people would get from prejudice opinions. It allows to raise awareness and help give others a voice
-her work incorporates the multiple identities- this is what made her categorise her as an indigenous artist or a feminist artist, which frustrates her, because the work sand art world like to categorise and frame people, when they are so much more than that
(contemporary artist isn’t so much offensive, as it just gives you a concept of your place in the world in terms of a sense of where you are in relation to time, whereas ‘feminist’ or ‘indigenous’ artist can be offensive (because it is just one aspect of identity an can confine and may not be the main context of a piece of art work)- identity is fixed but also fluid and that tampers with the ability to be fluid
-you need to defend the work that you produce, be 100% behind it- standing by and holding your work

In a class discussion afterward: one girl noted that Bindi Cole has to do the same, everyday things like us, eg. trying to find a carpark- which makes us also realise that we can be artists too; if they do what we do, we too can do what they do: we can be whatever we want to be, we just need to take the risk to do it. I found this an inspiring thought.

Banksy case study

Banksy and other graffiti artists purpose is to get a message across to society, most often featuring anti-capitalism, human rights, anti-corporate and anti-advertising (adapting advertising and symbols, which some see as an attack, but Banksy sees it as a defence). Similar to what I said in a previous post how “in the 21st century, we behave how the television, media, advertising, tell us how to behave- this is our reality which we are unaware of” Banksy acknowledges that advertisements are being bombarded upon us (with the intention to make us feel inadequate/ or lacking in something that you must have) wherever we go. And that is why he perceives his work as a defence to what society is doing to itself.

One of his pieces about throwing flowers, an interpretation could be that he is trying to make things better and do a good gesture, like giving flowers, but it is being overlooked and ignored, so in order to be noticed by others, it has to be done violently (throwing the flowers).

Banksy argues that space, spectrum, atmosphere, oxygen etc. cannot be owned, it is just a basic right that everyone should have, which connects to one of his other works, ‘I want change’ which I personally think is one of his most poignant pieces.

His identity is unknown, yet his message isn’t a mystery: we are living in an ideological illusion about images; we think we are immune to them, but we are not. The media affects us, and so does his statements against them.

Performance art

-What is performance art? You have to feel it and do it. It is an intensity, like method acting and the toolkit of Stanislavsky, of being the person and becoming the role. It is to be confronted with something that is real, being in the physical world; it’s moving and interacting.

Performance art was part of the avant-garde (which was covered in last years ‘Exploring creative arts) eg. Futurists- a dark dystopian idea, the celebration of machines and warfare- and Dada, Surrealists, Fluxus who were more psychoanalysis, performance was in all those forms.

The significance of performance art has a lot to do with feminist art as well:

-up until 1960’s, female artists weren’t well recognised. Around 98% of work in a gallery were by men. The were feminist art movements- as well as feminist movements- throughout the 20th century, for exammple, The Guerrilla Girls, formed in the 1980’s. One of their slogans spoke: 

-Yoko Ono’s ‘Cut’ where people were invited to cut her clotting, until she was makes and exposed/ vulnerable- this is a feminist art piece, but also highly performance. It speaks of the vulnerability of many women in the world. 

Abramovic's 'Pain and pleasure'

One particular artist, who is heavily featured within the course of creative arts, is Marina Abramovic, who doesn’t say she is a feminist artist, however many of her performance artworks can be interpreted to be explicit statements about the treatment of women (not necessarily to be seen as a feminist context). She is not a feminist artist, she says, but that doesn’t mean it can’t have a feminist interpretation. E.g. ‘Pain and pleasure’ where she stood in a room with a table filled with different objects and the audience can do whatever they want to her with those objects, and after that time was up, she walked towards them and they ran away. There was the idea of “I am here, these are the things that you can put me through” which is at first confronting for the audience but once they start, participants saw her as an object, using other objects to treat her however they wished, sometimes in an aggressive way. It confirms the idea that if you give your life in someone else's hands, they can take your life, which is even more confronting to discover for the participant.

Both of Abramovic and Yoko’s work helped reveal the co-ordinates of a society; this is what performance art is. 

-Other performance art includes the work of Sophie Calle (research further), ‘The Shadow,' where she asked her mother to get a private detective to follow her and document her. While this was occurring, she was also keeping a diary and after the week, she put the two documentations together (objectivity and subjectivity- the personal feelings and thoughts). So we can observe the study’s personal experience and the outsider’s observation. It can also be interpreted to show how easy it is for someone to track and follow someone else, but it can also be a statement saying that what someone observes, compared to what a person experiences differs- just like with art. It can also be an act to prove her own existence, to say “I have objective hard evidence that I exist.”

Perception

-A contemporary example is ‘the dress’ which is a popular demonstration proving that we all see the world differently. And art is a reminder of this, and not just with use of colour, but with interpretations of subject matter, based on one’s culture, upbringing, ect. It has a great deal to do with social context in which the observer is living in, like how in the 21st century, we behave how the television, media, advertising, tell us how to behave- this is our reality which we are unaware of. Environmental conditioning plays a big part in ones psyche.
When it comes to art, it is widely acknowledged that it challenges our perceptions, whether it be of the world in which we live in, or even just how we perceive an artwork itself.

Perceptions in art that were discussed within the lecture:
-Piero dell Francesca, ‘View of an Ideal City,’ 1470 with the lines of perspective to trick the eye into believing that such a place is real, by creating a virtual world with images projected onto it. It was a scientific way to show how a dream is made, by the use detail and accuracy.

Francesca's 'View of an Ideal City'

Michael Angelo's 'David' 

-Michael Angelo’s statue of ‘David,’ where the head is large, because it is meant to be observed looking up. It is also noted that the size of the hands are large, as it is a verification of the masculinity and fertility, to make up for the modest size of the statures penis, which was and still is not as tolerated in art works
-Rembrandt, ‘The Night watch’ 1642, the expressions and the catching of a moment, which hadn’t been done before in art. Also the use of chiaroscuro- the light and dark used in the renaissance, which alters what the onlooker sees as the main focus of the painting.
Also known for self-portrait, Rembrandt’s painted himself how he perceived himself, not like a heroic figure, instead he demonstrates empathy and severity for the human condition.

Duchamp's 'Fountain'

-Moving to more recent times, one of the radical artists, Marcel Duchamp destroys the perception of art itself. He aimed to confront and to be controversial (which he succeeded) with the ‘Fountain,’ saying that art is something you can piss on, but also putting the urinal in a different position and that renders it useless. He has taken the urinals original context and putting in an alien place in which it is recontextualised.
-Andreas Serrano ‘Piss Christ’ 1987, to show that the cross and how Jesus died, he was humiliated and tortured, whereas now, by many people, the cross is revered. This work isn’t so much as challenging perceptions, but reaffirming them and to remind people of what a symbol originally represented.

Feedback and reviewing the course

Today we were asked what else we wanted to learn/ discuss/ explore in our 'Versions' lectures and tutorials and my mind went blank.

Last year in 'Exploring Creative Arts', the lectures focussed on art history and various art movements that took place within the 20th century, which I thoroughly enjoyed. We looked at the Fluxus, Dada, Surrealism, Situationists and Punk movements, as well as looking at the concept of Feminism in art, as well as relational aesthetics and social practices later on in the semester. I would love to continue on studying different art movements that we haven't covered yet.
I have a great interest in history, and to discover the evolution of art throughout the last century was definitely a highlight of my first year. I would really love to study more art history, perhaps looking at art movements previous to the 20th century, looking at what was considered radical pieces in the 17th, 18th or 19th century. We have briefly mentioned Vincent Van Gogh in one of the lectures this semester, however, it would be really nice to expand and look at artists who were unorthodox with their creativity. Another artist who would be interesting to study would be Degas, who was extremely radical with his sculptures.

If we had a few lectures with case studies of particular artists like these two, for example, or dedicated to a few influential art movements, that would be amazing, as it is not only an interest, but also, it would allow us to look at older works of art instead of always looking at more contemporary pieces.