EYEBALL MASSAGE

Part of the whole of this second year thing on my course is all about trying to identify what my practice actually is. Not necessarily what it does, but what is the context of it? Well, I think I'm on the way to finding myself in that respect. I've found that I have a talent for observation; my work is a phenomological exploration, recording the world around me, and sometimes putting my own twist on it. I've also found that I'm drawn to humourous works, the strange and psychedelic, imaginative or unique processes (such as Dave McKean's photocopied collage comic strips) and pure absurdity. These qualities tend to stand out to me when I view an artist or their work.

With these in mind, these are some of the people I've been looking at recently.

PIPPILOTTI RIST - EYEBALL MASSAGE

With a name as strange as her work, Rist mainly works with video, presenting many visual wonders in her latest show at the Hayward Gallery, "Eyeball Massage". Often her work involves various manipulations of video, mainly playing with speed of playback, or crossfading two or more separate videos together to make a film-based collage of video and sound. 

This video shows a few excerpts from the works that were on show at the Hayward.

If there was ever an artist who represented the absurd, Rist is most definitely one of them. The sometimes insane subject matter of her work (smashing car windows with a flower, for example) and over-saturated, sickly sweet colours gives the impression of Rist living in a dream world, or perhaps documenting a dream, representing or acting out juxtapositions and the fantasies that the human condition throws up in the face of authority - ie, the destruction/vandalism of the cars, but using a flower, something that is inherently delicate.

JONAS MEKAS - AS I WAS MOVING AHEAD, OCCASIONALLY I SAW BRIEF GLIMPSES OF BEAUTY

Mekas is hailed by some as being a key influence in their film making career, and the "godfather of American avant-garde cinema". The works I have looked at are purely observational; Mekas was recording moments of his life since 1949, a few weeks after he emigrated to America. In the piece "Brief Glimpses" (video below) some of these moments are seen; holidays, family gatherings, people in the street, walks through countryside - all randomly spliced together, varying speeds and durations.

Watching this I feel as if I am being granted an exclusive glimpse into the memories of Mekas; the random splicing and sometimes chaotic nature of the editing make the clips similar the way recalling memories or dreams can be disjointed and sometimes fuzzy. This makes the work deeply personal, you almost feel as if you are invading his privacy by watching. As Mekas himself explains in the video, he initially intended to put the clips together chronologically, but eventually "gave up", giving way to randomness and chaos, saying that he "does not truly know where any part of [his] life truly belongs" - this further emphasises the video representing the act of remembering; Mekas is now an old man and has had many experiences, so it is likely he has trouble recalling exactly what happened where, despite these recordings. Saying this, who can truly pick out every single significant event of their lives from memory and describe it in vivid detail? Of course, some stand out more than others; human long-term memory is a powerful phenomenon. But not everything can be stored.

Think I might have to try some of these things; I haven't really done an awful lot of work with film. Might be time to try something a little different.

- Padfoot

THOSE BITCHES

As mentioned before, I've been working on getting together some random candid shots of people I have a connection with, and playing with the narratives/stories they suggest.

The most obvious example is the people I live with - a minor disagreement that has blown up into us basically not talking to each other, and the emotions and passions that have been expressed as a result, led me to try and photograph them; I figured that this might produce some interesting results. However, because of the current situation this has been remarkably difficult... near on impossible, in fact. 

I did manage to get some pictures of them, whilst they were fairly drunk at a club night and temporarily forgot that we were mortal enemies. Having said that, chances are they didn't even know it was me taking the photos.

Despite this, I confess that I feel no pleasure having taken these. I thought that doing this might help channel my negative feelings for these two girls into something creative; I was hoping to make a contrast between how I feel about them and how they look in the photograph, eg: the title may be something along the lines of "that bitch I have to live with", but in the photograph she might look serene and beautiful. But there is most certainly no contrast here. And frankly, I feel like I have sunk to their level by engaging in an activity as openly spiteful as this.

Time for a change of plan I think.

- Padfoot

GAIETY IS THE MOST OUTSTANDING FEATURE OF THE SOVIET UNION

...Or so we would be led to believe at any rate, according to our good friend Josef Stalin and the title of the Saatchi's latest exhibition, combining the work of some post-USSR Russian artists together into one show. I visited this show on Thursday 7th February; and I'm pretty sure that the show runs until the beginning of May... so if you haven't seen it yet, it's definitely worth a look.
The photography of Boris Mikhailov and Sergei Vasiliev stood out for me personally; of course, I may be slightly biased, there were some other pretty kickass sculptures / installations but I think these guys are the most relevant to my stuff.

The intimacy of these shots, the unparalleled control that each photographer holds over his subjects lends great power to the images. Mikhailov's section was dominated by "Case History" (1997-98), a selection from a series of over 400 shots, a photojournalistic documentation of the abandoned working class in the city of Kharkov after the dismantling of the Soviet Union 10 years previous. Mikhailov traded hot meals for utter control over his subject, often showing nudity or unusual poses - some of these point out in gruesome detail the physical suffering of these people; often the subjects are undernourished, have severely damaged teeth or various sores on their skin.

Sergei Vasiliev's subjects were rather different however - his photographs document a secret language of tattoos used by Russian Soviet prisoners, a set produced between 1989-93. The interesting thing about these images is that they appear to be isolated shots pulled from a bog-standard tattoo magazine. However as the narrative behind their creation is revealed, the work changes, evolves into a gritty documentation of resistance within the prison system's culture of repression.

This raw, intimate style ties in quite nicely with some of my own work I have been producing recently - I've been trying to unconsciously photograph people I meet or have a connection with. It has been a little difficult working out how best to get candid photos of people without them noticing, although I have found using my phone on silent and without flash can produce some good results. Of course, the fact that I can't use my camera is absolutely killing me, but since the autofocus is buggered, it's just not quick enough to be able to capture those little moments that can be lost to hesitation. I'll put them up on a separate post when I've got some good ones together.

Until then however, I must bid you adieu. Night all.

- Padfoot