Workshop
I missed this weeks workshop, I was having a bad day and was feeling drained physically and mentally. So I had to catch up with what was on Blackboard. I looked at the power point provided by Miranda and watched the videos and short film. I looked at some other peoples notebooks to get an idea of what they did during the workshop. I think the plan was to watch parts of the power point with 5 minute breaks between each section to draw what you remembered from the previous section. I tried to do this as best as I could and here is what I came up with.
I particularly liked the Pyscho piece with the repetitive scene of the girl in the shower in a long corridor. And the Andy Warhol piece of the skyscraper through time, the airplane, birds and noises in the background, whilst the time of day changed slowly.
Artist Research
Andy Warhol, Empire, 1965
Empire, by Andy Warhol (1964), is an epic black and white silent film consisting of a stationary shot of the Empire State Building from early evening to 3am, filmed from the forty-fourth floor of the Time-Life Building in Manhattan. The films purpose is to capture the passage of time.
Filmmaker Jonas Mekas worked as Warhol’s cameraman, using standard twelve-hundred-foot rolls of 16mm film. Filmed at 24 frames per second, slowed down to 16 frames per second to fill the 8 hours. As the sun sets the figure of the building emerges with its lights turned on once enveloped in darkness.
The repetition of the building and unedited footage is a good acknowledgement of the passage of time.
Douglas Gordon – 24 hour Pyscho, 1993
Douglas Gordons 24-hour Pyscho (1993), was first shown at Tramway in Glasgow. This was his first public piece of work demonstrating his newfound technique of slowing down a single film so that it lasts a full day.
The film introduced themes common is in previous work, such as repetition, time, memory, darkness and light.
This way of art opens up unseen detail and makes new use of the footage made by Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960). Regardless of seeing the film itself, widespread knowledge of the film works in favour for Gordon here. It allows previous viewers to feel a connection to the film and create new memories. The prolonged scenes work in a comedic kind of way, playing with time.
Many viewers have commented on the piece of work, saying it opens up a possibility for other film footage to be exhibited in this way. The fact that the 24 hour footage is silent as well allowed viewers who have watched Hitchcock’s film to hear the original sound in an echo in the back of their minds.
Christian Marclay – The Clock (2010)
Marclay’s work explores connections between sound, noise, photography and video.
Over the last 40 years, Marclay has explored the fusion of fine art and audio culture, transforming sound and music into a visible and physical form through performance, collage, sculpture, installation, photography and video.
The Clock (2010) is a video projection constructed out of cinematic moments when time is expressed or a character interacts with a clock, watch or a particular part of the day. Following many years of research, Marclay excerpted thousands of fragments from film and edited them, so they flow naturally. The clock premiered at White Cube, Mason’s yard in London in October 2010. The video is 24 hours long and functions as a time piece itself, synchronised with the local time zone. The viewer can look at the work at any moment and use it to tell the time. However, the audience experiences a vast range of narratives and moods within a few minutes, it can make time unravel and lose direction. The piece ruptures and chronological coherence.
The clock plays with how audiences experience narrative through cinema, examining the devices filmmakers create to make a persuasive illusion. The audience is removed from reality and caught in a new correspondence to the narrative shown.
Janet Cardiff’s “Her Long Black Hair”
Janet Cardiff’s “Her long Black hair” is a 35-minute journey that starts at Central park south and transforms an everyday stroll in the park into a psychological experience. Cardiff, born in 1957 in Brussels, Canada, takes each listener on a journey through Central park’s 19th century pathways, retracing the footsteps of an enigmatic dark-haired woman. The piece is a complex investigation of location, time, sound and physicality. Including observations of fact and fiction, local history and operatic music.
The journey uses photographs to reflect upon the relationship between images and notions of loss, history and beauty. Cardiff intends for the visitor to listen to an audio track while observing the images and the walk. Including a map of the park as well.
Project
I am still struggling to decide what I want to do as a Project. I have done some sketches and brainstormed ideas about incorporating Doctor Who and creating some sort of clock form, but it seems too cliché. I can’t get into the swing of creating anything at the moment, I don’t know if I am finding it difficult to come up with ideas or to stick within the theme of time.