Project 3 Vimeo Link & Artist Statement
Drawing inspiration from Omer Fast’s work and Anri Sala’s Ravel Ravel Unravel, my main objective for Project 3 was to create a collage of video and sound. Over spring break, I visited my family in North Carolina while I was still working on compiling footage for the project. My cousin Steven who lives there happens to be a talented musician and we both had this eureka moment. I scrapped my previous footage and would instead record him playing the instruments he had around the house. I recorded him playing his keyboard, midi controller, old toy piano, glockenspiel, guitar, ukulele, and melodica. Steven’s process was entirely improvisational but he played all of the different instruments at the same tempo. He only asked that I frame each shot so his face would not be visible. While compositing the clips in After Effects, Steven recommended that I should set each instrument to a different loop. The numbers in the lower right hand corner represent the timing of each loop. I inserted the timing text on each clip to make the editing process easier, and chose to leave it in the final version so the viewer can see our creative process. No instrument gets looped after the 2:00 mark and so each video ends depending on how long it is and where the last loop concludes. The resulting collage and amalgamation of sounds has a somber tone, so I added a black and white filter to heighten the feeling of sadness. Steven’s choice to wear a shirt that read “sadface” was purely coincidental. Thus, Sadface was born out of an opportune collaboration.
Project 3 artist statement
In this project I wanted to use the idea of juxtaposition in a more subtle way. My objective was to point out dissimilarities in very similar situations, most especially in the natural world. The different types of flowers are similar structurally but have their distinct personalities and visual differences. I was also inspired by the work of Omer Fast’s camera angles in the piece Spring. The way he approached the same scene from different angles immerses the audience in the setting and exposes a new narrative. I tried to replicate this by shooting the flowers and grass from a distance, creating a mask and putting a layer underneath of a shot of the same flowers from an up close angle. The scene where I layered two different shots of the same lilac tree were to expose the differences between them, from different angles the light approaches the tree in a different way. I wanted to highlight these differences. I used the idea of juxtaposition in the scenes where I shot video of a street covered in litter and masked out a window to a scene of flowers. Color palette was also an important tool in this scene. The brown and caramel tones of the garbage contrast directly with the purple flowers. The color palettes as well as the subject matter add to the concept of juxtaposition used in these frames. I toy with juxtaposition a second time in the project when the black background is placed against the sun. The stark comparison of the black background, the light of the sun and the living flowers show just how often opposites are at play in nature. I also created ellipses shapes to add an unnatural and “tampered with” element to an otherwise natural scene. This was another attempt to add to the juxtapositions of the work.
Omer Fast Exhibition Review
What I like in the artist’s work is the camera perspective and the frames. The proportions of the frames were visually pleasing me. For example, in “Continuity” in one scene, the son and the father was walking towards the garage but you could also see the wall behind the corner and the door which was a bit further away. I mean the artist could shoot them together while working but he included other details around. Another thing he uses is to shoot from the behind of the people. He did that in the car from the backseat and that helps audience to involve in the video. Another scene that was shot from the behind and had a suitable angle was when the parents climbed the hill. Audience doesn’t see anything at first and starts to wonder. I can say that the artist has a unique style that I could tell by looking at his different works. I also think the part were the son was telling a story had a different approach. The people from the story suddenly appeared at the background and they were like still images. As the boy keeps telling the story they kept moving. I wasn’t expecting that kind of technique.
I like experimental and unordinary presentations. Therefore I really liked the installation of the “Spring”. It has more action compared to the other works of the artist therefore I think shifting from screens and showing different perspectives really worked there. This one was my favorite. The changing angles in the frames were like playing with time.
The artist’s works were based on the strains that families have due to the psychological issues and he gives that with different perspectives, the uncertainties between real and the unreal and he uses repetition. For example in the “5000 feet is the best” there is a shifting between the reality and non-reality so that the family keeps walking after the explosion like nothing happen.
Blog 8
Claire Bishop’s “Digital Divide” resonates greatly with Walter Benjamin’s “Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”. She states, “faced with the infinite multiplicity of digital files, the uniqueness of the art object needs to be reasserted in the face of its infinite, uncontrollable dissemination via Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr, etc.” Similarly, Benjamin states that while traditional forms of art such as painting and sculpture were valued for their unique existence and exclusivity, modern forms of art in the age of mechanical reproduction (such as film, video, and photography) were valued for their appeal to the masses and more effortless dissemination. Bishop relates the contemporary artist’s’ reluctance to embrace the effortless dissemination of video, film, and photography to their reverence for history and “craft” (the “physicality” of the editing process). Bishop also believes that these artists prefer to create art with film more than digital media/ video because they perceive that film is harder to reproduce and thus “rarer”. Therefore, they are striving to return to the days of traditional art when rarity gifted more value to a work of art. I believe that, besides nostalgia and a desire to return to tradition, contemporary artists and the art market are currently trying to cope with the effortless dissemination of new forms of art because although these newer forms have more political power (due to their accessibility to the masses), they have less monetary power.
Another interesting belief of artists using art forms from the age of mechanical reproduction is the belief that audiences viewing work in a museum have a greater capacity for developing a closer relationship with art than those viewing it online. This view contrasts from Benjamin’s, which states that a piece of art removed from it’s original setting (a triptych removed from its church and placed in a museum) loses it’s aura. Benjamin would argue that subjects from any photo, film, or video has already lost their aura, regardless of whether the art is shown in a museum or online.
Blog 5 Hamza Saab
Elwes’s article shares a very interesting standpoint on how young people the death of the art object. Art has transitioned with technology with new form of creativity flourishing and more and more every decade. Video art became a platform for people who like to express a visual idea rather then building a sculpture or painting. Another interesting idea that caught my attention is the supply of artist “pen”, over the years video art has been accessible for everybody and even now phones have an automatic video feature which allows people to use it as their platform.
Omer Fast
The Omer Fast exhibit in Chelsea was very interestingly laid out with an extremely dark gallery, a few hallways and several dark halls leading to rooms with large television sets. In general I noticed that Omer Fast uses themes of narrative and his works all struck me like cinematic movies. A lot of his work dealt with the ideas of PTSD, one piece specifically highlighting the stories of a drone operator. Spring was my personal favorite. The piece centered around a troubled boy in a suburban town who meets an untimely and very surprising death in a bicycle accident. The television screen was broken up in several screens and the screens had a different point of view on the same scene. I really enjoyed this because I felt like the viewer had a more immersive view of the scene. To me, this work in particular felt like a more artistic version of going to the movie theater. Omer’s split screen technique could be a development in the cinematic experience in general, like a Three D movie. I thought that this enhanced Omer’s subject matter and refocused on his characters. I could easily see this technique being employed by movie producers in the near future. I found myself really drawn in to the work, and the split screen was so seamlessly woven with what was playing in the main screen that sometimes I did not even notice when they were playing different things. I was impressed with Fast’s ability to create a cohesive visual picture while showing different perspectives on the same scene.
Final Project: Comfort’s First
For my final project, I desire to explore and examine the newest big trend in fashion: athleisure.
“It is a big moment for “athleisure,” the apparel industry’s term for the casual, athletic-inspired way of dressing rooted in leggings, tank tops and sneakers. Athleisure promises a whole day’s wear from a single outfit, taking people from spin class to the coffee shop to the office and then out for a cocktail at happy hour.” — Elizabeth Holmes, Wall Street Journal, 5 May 2015
It has been a personal goal of mine to produce a fashion-oriented video piece. This is my chance to actually make it happen. I plan to film stores to check out their current offerings for people who are into the athleisure lifestyle. I want these portions to look “amateur” with a hand-held camera strategy on a first person perspective. To compliment the in-store portions, I plan to film people in their athleisure apparels doing their regular activities (going to school, buying groceries, etc.). I want these segments to look professionally shot with composition, camera movements, and audios as priorities. To end the piece, I hope to interview people and get their insights about the trend.