Afterall, Online Art Journal

The first Article that I would like to introduce from this online source is about Haris Epaminonda, a video artist who is currently working in Berlin, Germany. The interview was conducted by Sonia Campagnola.

Haris is a contemporary video artist who works with three-channel video installation pieces that are comprised of re-edited found footage. She uses simple optical effects, along with collage techniques and differences in color to come up with work that is highly engaging to the viewer. Her work is shown as installations in galleries and at festivals. Being that Haris works with found footage, the work is definitely international, including films and images from all around the world. The main approaches to making that are discussed are her inspirations for work. The interviewer questions her about how growing up in Cyrus affected her work, as well as going to school in London. Epaminonda talks about how a professor in the Humanities department helped her realize that printmaking was not for her, so she started to experiment with video. Her most recent work is driven by images and books, and connects the two by using different associations between true and fictional stories.

Link: http://www.afterall.org/onlinecurrent.html?online_id=35246344

The second Article I looked at was By George Clark about an influential 1960's avant-garde artist named Tony Conrad.

Ever heard of someone frying or drilling holes in to film then immediately throwing it in to a projector to see the results? Tony Conrad is that man to read about if these zany ideas are what you like to hear about. Conrad is an artist who has been making films, videos, and all sorts of wacky pieces of art for over 40 years. He is also a musician and a teacher. Many of his works include live musical performances to accompany the images being projected. He used to work in various art forms including film, but in the 1970's he moved over to video and made many collaborations with other artists. His work was usually performed live as an installation in galleries such as the Tate Modern, for which he opened with many acts such as his film "The Flicker". His work is described in the article as "a series of fragments, intersections and collaborations, rather than as a totality...". I think that this sort of work can, once again, bring us back the the old idea that the viewer completes the work.

Link: http://www.afterall.org/onlinecurrent.html?online_id=60

Field Report #2, Act/React

This past weekend i finally got off of my lazy butt and decided to go check out what the new exhibit, Act React, at the Milwaukee Art Museum had to offer. I had only been to the Art museum once before for a Digital Arts course so i was anxious to see how that visit would compare to this one. The exhibit that I had previously gone to had been called "Foto" was was basically a brief overview of photography in the 20th century. Act React was MUCH different from the traditional style of an art exhibit. Normally the viewer can interact with works in a few ways; mainly pondering motivation for a work and such, but this exhibit brings the interactivity to a whole new level.

The first installation that I would like to talk about is Brian Knep's "Healing Pool". If you're looking for a piece of artwork that not only invites you, but almost essentially NEEDS you to finish its presence, this is it. The work consists of a 20x30 ft. floor with a projection coming down on it that looks like a bunch of cells or something. As one walks out on to the floor the "cells" will disappear where they walk, and eventually begin to reappear in the empty spaces. If you stop moving in the middle of Healing Pool, the cells will form around where you stand, sit, lay, and will not overtake you. This is the reason that I believe that this work is a good example of interactive art that NEEDS someone to complete it. The other amazing thing about this work, as the artist, and the curator McKinnen implied, is that this work will bring people together and cause them to act in ways that they wouldn't normally act in an exhibit or public place. When I was there, people began to jump in simultaneously and attempt to clear the whole floor of the cells. People of all ages were running around frantically and laughing as they tried to complete this task. I really enjoyed this work.

The second Piece i would like to go over is Janet Cardiff's sound table entitled "To Touch". This work stood out from the rest in that it was mostly a sonic experience, not a visual one. There is a large, old-looking wooden table with some lights shining on it. One who had no previous knowledge going in to this room would probably be highly confused as to what they were looking for in the piece. I, however had seen clips of this work in class so I dove right in. This installation can cause all sorts of different reactions from the viewer(listener?). I began at a corner of the table and moved my hands very slowly. The sounds began to emerge from around the room according to my movements. After experimenting with To Touch for a few minutes I began to move faster and receive the information more and more quickly. I watched as other people interacted with the work and decided that this piece really can't be the same for any two people. No one navigates the table in quite the same way, which I thought was very intriguing.

All in all this exhibit blew the previous visit to the Art Museum(for me at least) out of the water. The idea of actually being able to infinitely be a part of the work in so many different ways is just amazing to me. This sort of art seems to really be emerging and engaging many people's interests. Many people are getting somewhat bored of the old white wall exhibit; this is a great way to break away from the same-old and experience something completely new.

Field Report #1, Kevin Everson

“The Golden Age of Fish”, a 70 minute feature by filmmaker Kevin Jerome Everson, was a very interesting mixture of imagery, sound, and personal background as well as the background of a specific place, Cleveland. Kevin Everson himself, when asked if he sees his piece as a documentary, responded by calling it a “document”. Everson also explains that a lot of this footage is influenced by events that took place during his childhood in Ohio, giving the film a sense of autobiography. When I heard about this aspect of the film, I instantly started relating this film to “What the Water Said” which we talked about earlier in class. These films are very different, but they are also similar in that they are both seen as autobiographical, and in my eyes, biographical, in their own ways.

Kevin Everson talked about living in a small town between Columbus and Cleveland. The news would always seem to portray Cleveland as a dangerous place, showing images of murders and murder/suicides over and over again. Columbus was never showed having tragedies as such occurring there, it was seen as a safe haven compared to the chaos of Cleveland. With “The Golden Age of Fish” Kevin recreates a story in biographical form, seen through the eyes of a geologist, which re-lives the stories of these murder/suicides. Using found footage as well as his own footage shot in many different mediums, Everson combines his own style of filmmaking to real-life occurrences to bring out a part of his own past. “What the Water Said No. 1-3” by David Gatten was discussed in class as possibly being autobiographical too. We read that Gatten spent a lot of time near water in his childhood which could have been what pushed him to do an experiment such as what he has done in this film, and the upcoming parts 4-6. Both films have this element of autobiography that is sort of hidden if you don’t know the background of the maker. They also seem to me that they both have a strong element of biographical meaning.

The subjects in these two pieces seem to have they their own way of creating a story, even though neither of the works is really a straight-forward narrative. In Everson’s work the woman who basically narrates most of the film and appears throughout is the subject of biography. We see her in many different aspects of life ranging from work, to errands, to play. We gather that she is a geologist who works very hard during the days, seems to walk nearly everywhere, and also does Public Service Announcement commercials. The images of her life are weaved in through the images of Everson’s memories of his childhood. The biographical sense that I gather from Gatten’s work is that this was not, in a sense, made under the pure control of the filmmaker. Film was crumpled up and thrown into the water and cages and the creatures and liquid were able to do as they pleased with it. The final product could be seen as an authentic view on the way that the water its creatures live. They have no idea what the film is, so they were just acting the way that they normally would have, which produced very interesting results.

In conclusion, I would like to state once again that I see both Everson’s work and Gatten’s piece both work in biographical and autobiographical ways to portray their imagery. Though the films are very different in their process and message, they are similar in their backgrounds. The makers are really putting themselves, and their pasts into these pieces, as well as trying to portray different messages to us, the viewers.