Final Project Vimeo Link & Artist Statement
My final project Don’t Blink is a commentary on the public yet underground and fleeting nature of graffiti art and how many ignore it while some engage with it. I accomplish this by book-ending a graffiti art fan’s stop motion adventure into the Graffiti Hall of Fame with clips of passersby walking, driving, and riding a train right past it. When the kid in the beginning jumps and touches the “HARLEM” graffiti wall, the sound effects begin faintly. Sound drives the hyper-kinetic nature of the stop motion video, with dizzying and energetic electronic beats serving as the soundtrack. I pitched up the video at key moments to sync to the pace of the techno track which I also edited. I intentionally chose to include techno even though graffiti art is rooted in hip-hop culture. Hip-hop has become highly commercialized today but techno continues to remain underground, just like true graffiti art. While the Graffiti Hall of Fame is a commissioned public art space in a schoolyard, it was conceived in 1980 by New York graffiti artist, Ray Rodríguez (a.k.a. “Sting Ray”), as a site for local graffiti artists to display their skills without having to break the law. It is definitely an art space for and by the Harlem graffiti art community and not for tourists. Don’t Blink ends just as abruptly as it begins, hence the title. In other words, art is all around…blink and you might miss it.
Final Project (YouTube Link)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uI3_3v_9mY
Use 1020p (HD)
Final
https://vimeo.com/168103561
Smoking is all around us, impacting nearly everyone of us, but specifically for an individual that is a victim of the addiction it becomes more of an impact. It’s hard for a bystander to convince a smoker to quit or slowly give up a cigarette, plainly because the idea of the cigarette is more or less etched into the person’s lives. There’s a reason for the smoker to pick up a cigarette and in order for them to put it down it takes more than convincing them of the effects. Through my video, I don’t intend to convince the smoker, but give them a visual of their reality. I intend to show them that there is meaning in their lives and that they are blind to a repulsive act because they see beauty in it. When in actuality the beauty is a distortion of their reality. This beauty slowly but surely deteriorates, alongside their relationships and most importantly themselves. For this piece I decided to use the dichotomy of reality and illusion to tap on the idea of how smoking affects individuals in more than one way. The reality part of the video is shot to reflect the individual in his regular routine, smoking one after the other in one sitting. The purpose of using black and white is to convey this idea of sorrow and uneasiness in the act itself. The scene that transitions from himself to an encounter with his friend is an emphasis on how the act affects people around him and therefore the reason for his slow disappearance. While the elements in the illusion or animation conveys the idea of time being precious, and why the smoker might see beauty in smoking through the colors and movement of smoke. The smoke also quickly moves over the people associated in his life to portray this idea of wiped away relationships. The spoken word piece that goes over the entire video was used to establish a certain emotion. The piece is written in a way that talks to the audience as well as the smoker. Almost like a voice in the person’s head that isn’t convincing, but narrating, yet convincing the audience that doesn’t smoke.