My
works been slowly progressing forwards in the past week, the majority of the
video visuals are nearly finished whilst the soundscape is still being crafted,
and I haven’t even started writing the script, which is arguably the most
important part and will tie everything together. I also visited a few galleries
like the Edel Assanti and watched a fair amount of films including The Assassin
and Second Skin.
Throughout
the week I thought a lot about the video, making decisions about the sounds and
how everything interlinks. Last week I talked a little about the overall
concept, but not about the individual parts, which I intend to write about now.
When the video begins, you are presented with a square, white (uncorrupted) room,
where two individuals are engrossed in their screens. The Zooks that they’re
watching are created using a software that’s meant to be used by children to
create ‘warriors’ to fight in an arena battle, for the children’s enjoyment. I
use the software to create forms that are weighed down by a huge blue cube,
attempting to fight back but never being victorious, as the block is a part of
the creature, similar to how Capitalism is a part of all of us. As the video
goes on, the block slowly begins to overwhelm the different creatures, becoming
bigger and bigger until eventually it’s just a blue block on the screen. The
fact that I’m using this software reiterates the point that the majority of the
western world is influenced by or involved with Capitalism, and the fact that
the program is created by the BBC furthers that. The camera then pans out of a
different screen (thinking about how this technology helps to bring people
together whilst also critiquing the ease of it all) circling around to show you
that the people in the box are slowly being infested by the blue after watching
these creatures; the screens are beginning to swallow up the people. The music for
the work is made up of computer and video game sound effects, linking the work
to consumer Capitalism and the rise of technology in this post internet age. As
a side note here, I’m also a big fan of Vaporwave music, which is a big
influence for the soundscape.
When
the camera delves back into the screen, which is an IPad, we zoom down onto a
blue box. The blues within the piece are all slightly different, which is
making a point that Capitalism comes in many forms. The music at this point
appears to be in awe of the box, amazed at the creation of such a simple idea
with many intricacies hidden within. When we eventually go into the box, we see
the figures inside, surrounded by the blue. At this point the figures are
viewing these figures through their screen. They may or may not be the same individuals,
and that’s the point, everyone being trapped within small boxes, seeing the
world through a screen, looking exactly alike and looking into other people’s
little boxes via their own. After the video glitches to multiple different
rooms, with different blues and wireframe bodies, we go back to the original room,
which is completely covered with blue. The TV begins to glitch, changing from
many heavy materials like concrete and steel to a calming image of artificial water.
Blinds are also shown, blocking out creatures looking in whilst also stopping
the individuals from looking out. The water is an escape, but also a deadly
force, threatening to swallow the room, getting in through the blinds and the
concrete which hold the people within the walls of the cubicle like space. As
we come to the end of the films – so far – the water is seen in many different
forms, waiting to flood into the room. As it pans out of the corridor we see
the two people fully blue, completely taken by the system.
At
this point in the movie the camera moves around the space and then proceeds to
zoom into the man’s head, signalling that the ideas imbedded within the video
are things I think about every day, as well as adding doubt to whether or not
the whole ordeal is within this individuals mind or not. I am yet to add in a scene
that will be overlapping this one, where the people sitting on the sofa become
zooks, slowly melting into their own blue blocks as the camera pans around the
room. This is something I’m yet to do. Alongside this I want the video to
continue by zooming out of the screen, to show two people watching the film in
real life on a computer screen. This will go on for around half of the original
film, where the people may or may not be commenting on the movie. At around the
half way point the camera will zoom out again to reveal that the artificial
people are watching the real people watching the video. The whole film will end
once the video within the video within the video ends for the second time,
ending by zooming in really fast to begin the whole process again. This is what
I intend to film in the coming week, as well as starting to write my script for
the original video, taking quotes from children’s TV shows and popular films
whilst considering life and its meanings, or lack of.
I
also plan to create a sculpture or a series of sculptures of the Zooks being
enveloped by the blue block. The general idea is to have the Zook made of an
incredibly artificial material, and the block being made up of something
incredibly weighty and traditional, like cement or plaster. I’m only in the
beginning stages of planning, as most of my time is taken up by working on the
film, but once that’s all finalised I can start thinking about the sculpture a
little more.
Whilst
not working this week, I went to a few exhibitions which were mostly positive
experiences, unlike last week. The first space that I visited was Evelyn Yard, which
had some beautiful wall based ‘sculptures’ which seemed to melt into the wall
and were incredibly subtle. Rook & Raven was showing a bunch of colour
paintings and metal structures, which were ‘aesthetically pleasing’ to look at,
and some Malevich/Kandinsky inspired works which weren’t that special. Edel
Assanti was next, with some incredibly impressive video works. I especially enjoyed
Gregory Kalliche’s ‘Last Chance’ video piece, which discussed the dying planet accompanied
by animated lizards. Josh Lilley came next, with some surprisingly nice prints
that were really well done. For once the downstairs actually had some good work
being shown. The Bartha Contemporary had some vaguely okay work, considering
the use of light and colour. It was interesting to see the subtle change over
time in some of the pieces, but compared to work that’s been in there before –
like Henrik Eiben’s beautiful geometric compositions – it was a little
disappointing.
I
also visited the Fashion Space Gallery at LCF, which was kind of fun, but very
fashion orientated, which isn’t really for me. Pippy Houldsworth Gallery had
some paper cutting work by Yuken Teruya up, which was vaguely impressive, but
compared to what Peter Callesen creates it wasn’t that great. I remember seeing
Teruya’s work at the Saatchi a few years ago, and was only really interested
because he was turning something terrible (a McDonalds bag) into something
beautiful (a tree); which was, even then, kind of obvious. I then went to Sadie
Coles HQ, which was odd, as I had to sign a release form to get into the space.
This made me think something exciting was happening upstairs, but unfortunately
this was not the case, as the ‘dangerous activity’ was in fact a game of bowls.
The general work was quite interesting, with an impenetrable sound piece occurring
in one corner and a variety of sculptures dotted around the space. The lack of
a press release was more than slightly frustrating though.
Marian
Goodman was next, with some solid work being shown from a bunch of big names
like Bruce Nauman and Luciano Fabro. All the pieces were really good, with
Fabro’s marble pieces being a definite highlight, but nothing I hadn’t seen
before. A mixture of a positive and a negative. Frith Street was over the road,
so I went there to see a variety of pieces all centred on the idea of the
cinema space by Bridget Smith. I really liked a piece simply titled ‘Projection’
which was a three screen video installation displaying the beam of light from a
projection screen. It was really quite beautiful and simple.
I
then ventured over to the Saatchi Gallery. Overall it was quite an unpleasant experience,
full of people photographing themselves touching the clay cows (why are there
clay cows in an art gallery?) and fondling the taxidermy horse. To cope with
the amount of people wandering around the place, taking pictures of anything
that could be labelled as ‘art’, I had to explore whilst listening to calm
music. For me, the majority of the work was very basic, with the standouts
being Moje Sabz by Sohelia Sokhanvari (simply for aesthetic reasons) and 181 Kilometres
by Alice Anderson because of the impressive-nuss of the thing itself and how it
was created.
I
also went to the Zabludowicz Collection to see the new show; Use/User/Used. It
was a bit weird, as the space had been drastically changed following the end of
Rafman’s exhibition, and having been there so many times before I had gotten
used to the dark interior and booming sounds. The new work was mostly
interesting, with a piece by Artie Vierkant called Antoine Office, Antoine
Casual being a favourite. Within the two channel video, an animation of a man
in business clothes on one screen is shown and in casual attire on another. The
animated man is seen to be controlled in both the video pieces, not just ‘at
the office’, a self-enforced and externally imposed dependence on all things.
Another video work I really enjoyed was called Lolcats by Rachel Maclean. It
was hilariously disturbing, and well worth the 15 minute running time. To talk
of the content would spoil the enjoyment.
I
then went to the final gallery of the week, which was the Parasol Unit displaying
work by Julian Charrière. Some parts were interesting, like several plants
dipped in liquid nitrogen and huge photographs of the artist melting an
iceberg. As I’m typing this, I do realise that the exhibition was rather good,
but in comparison to the previous exhibition that was centred on abstract art
from Belgium, it didn’t really compare.
This
week I also watched a variety of films, the first being The Fifth Estate. The visualisation
of the network of people that occurred during the film reminded me of the many
scenes in Hackers where the actual hacking is shown in a 3D world of its own.
Continuing on the ‘internet’ path I then watched Terms and Conditions May
Apply. The revelations surrounding privacy settings was intriguing, even though
I knew about the majority of what was being said. It reminded me of many scenes
in TV shows like Homeland, The Newsroom, Person of Interest and especially Weeds
whenever the NSA is mentioned, watching everything everyone does. I then moved
onto documentaries about video games, starting with Second Skin, which looked
at people who were obsessed with the popular MMO, World of Warcraft. To watch
these people live their life absorbed by their computer was highly distressing,
but at the same time fascinating to watch. Next up was Video Games: The Movie,
which was kind of dull, rehashing a lot of aspects of the video game industry
that I already know about, whilst completely ignoring many others. In the small
world that the film makers live in, apparently Steam doesn’t exist, or most
forms of computer gaming, which was odd. Compared to Charlie Brooker’s How
Videogames Changed the World, VG: TM was dull and slightly patronising. I then
watched Life 2.0, which was all about Second Life and the people who interact
with this virtual world every day. It was an intriguing watch, which made me
think a lot about the differences between a real and virtual relationship;
screen vs reality, etc. I also watched a few documentaries about Capitalism,
one simply called The Corporation and another titled The Success and Price of Capitalism.
They both made for interesting viewings, but brought up a lot of ideas/general
things that I was already aware of. However it was still good to have certain
things reinforced, etc.
The
final film of the week was called The Assassin, an incredibly subtle film which
was shot very well and contained only a handful of words which were used only when
body language wasn’t able to communicate what was being felt on screen. The
fight scenes were swift and, in comparison to most action films, the director
didn’t seem to actually want them, allowing the camera to drift off to focus on
an attractive tree or building. It was a really interesting film.
Alongside
the films, I played a few games that are definitely noteworthy. One of which
was titled That Dragon, Cancer. In it, you are a voyeur of sorts, observing a
small child’s 4 year battle with cancer. It was an incredibly beautiful and
heart wrenching game, which had me very close to tears. I highly recommend giving
it a try, or at least watching a no-commentary play through on YouTube. Mondo
Medicals was another game, which was incredibly weird and surreal, I think I’ll
leave it at that. I also played ‘Every day the same dream’ which, although
basic, was an interesting 10 minute insight into a monotony filled existence.
On
top of all the screen based content I started reading a book called Me++ that
looks at the consequences of information technology in everyday life. A stand
out quote for me was ‘connecting creatures who must always separate but can’t
connect without separating’ (Georg Simmel) and the idea that time started as a communal
activity but ended with the individual. I’m enjoying it a lot.
Oh
and I also had an artist talk on Tuesday by Ben Cove, a painter. The work was
nice to look at but didn’t really do anything for me, as the talk was being
given by a painter, yet again. On Monday I also had a lecture on site
specificity, which was informative, although a lot of the artist that were
brought up I was already aware of, like Richard Long and Daniel Buren, a big
fan of both.
In
the coming week I want to continue working on my film, hopefully having the
bare bones of a script by next week, as well as the soundscape completed and
the visuals all finalised. I look forward to progressing onwards with this project,
as I’m really excited about the outcome.
Snapchat:
bob.bk
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