Between April and September 2018 I carried out research in preparation for my 2 week residency at SERDE in Latvia in September 2018. This involved targeting specific events that were related to my work and field of interest. Here is a synopsis of the research.
AUGUST 2018: Tacita Dean, Salome Lamas, Monster Chetwynd
Some more research in the field of artists and film making. This is the final block of research before I head off next weekend for Latvia. So in order that I attended and came across them, here goes.
‘Tacita Dean – Looking to See’
I watched a recent episode of the BBC’s Imagine series titled ‘Tacita Dean – Looking to See’. This was a walk through of Dean’s career. What did I learn from watching this? Well, that her grand father founded Ealing Studios, so she pretty much as had film in her blood from an early age. The closest I can get to this is perhaps when I was a kid, my dad bought a film projector and showed films in the living room of our council house, using the wall as a screen. This was in the late 1970s / early 80s and the films were expensive and the titles limited. Anyway, that was my first experience of projected film. I also learned that her film making technique quite often employs either a fixed single camera or a limited number of cameras, perhaps 2. The view remains the same to the point where it appears to be point the camera and turn it on. I also learned that she appears to become interested in a subject and then make something that is either connected or a focused macro part of the subject, rather than featuring the subject itself. For example Fernsehturm (TV tower), (2001) in Berlin – filming the people in the revolving restaurant or ‘Disappearance at Sea’ (1996), 16mm – a film about the tragedy of the round the world sailing attempt by Donald Crowhurst. Or Mario Merz (2002).
In the documentary Adrian Searle (art critic, The Guardian) comments on the time and pace of Dean’s films and that in this modern world we expect everything to happen quickly, however Dean’s film act in an opposite manner and demand that the viewer slows down to watch the film. Another worthy note on Dean’s film making is in fact a comment made by her in 2003:
“I film with incredibly long takes and I wait. It’s extremely expensive, but I wait for something to happen within the frame because I don’t like zooming and panning. I’ll wait for that bird to fly through the frame.” (2003, p.41).
So I feel the main thing to absorb and take away from Tacita Dean’s film making is the use of time itself as a narrative and comment.
‘Extinction’ by Salome Lamas
Through social media, I came across what looked like an interesting film that was being screen at the ICA in London. The subject matter is well within the scope of my own interests and is the type of project I would embark upon. The film is about the breakaway and unrecognized state of Transnistra. I was already familiar with this state and it would be a place of interest to visit. Here is the official description of the film from Lamas’s website:
‘The end of the cold war did not produce a thaw throughout the continent. A peculiarity of today’s Europe is the variety of “frozen conflicts” it contains. Transnistria is an unrecognized state that broke away from the former Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic of the Soviet Union in 1990. The film is a casual juxtaposition of the elevated with the banal, with an eerily convincing logic of paradox.’
There are a few short trailers available, so that is all I have been able to watch, however from what I did see it looks interesting. The trailers are in monochrome which makes the Soviet architecture look very dynamic and stunningly beautiful. It also adds tension and drama, perhaps it is in black and white because Transnistra has many shades of grey. So in short, the cinematography looks stunning. However the reality for myself is I don’t have a production budget nor anyone to assist really. So it is a case of making do with the little that I have.
‘Face Cream’ by Monster Chetwynd, Talk and Film screen on Sat 25thAugust, GoMA, Glasgow
As I always say, the great thing about living in Glasgow is that there is always something on that is arts related. Quite often it is a case of targeting events that are of specific interest to your own practice. So for this reason I went along to see a film that has been made by Monster. The first part of the event was a talk about some of the projects and work that she has made over the years and this has involved a lot of performance. It transpires that this is how she became interested in film making, because she was documenting her performances. The film itself was interesting because it blended documentary style footage from one of her ‘Face Cream’ making workshops (one of the participants faces was actually blurred out) with professional acting and green screen CGI scenes. So it seems the process and habit of documenting has worked its way into her film making approach. The film narrative was broadly based around the notion that face cream has magical powers, such as rejuvenation, youth re-gained, rolling back of the years, etc.
There was a whole host of people involved in the project and it was good to see a strong element of social inclusion and outreach working with artists and people in the east end of the city. The scenes were quite varied and interesting, with the some of the people involved having to learn how to fly with the help of a crane and harness! The scenes towards the end and the music choice reminded me of the East German film ‘The Singing Ringing Tree’. There was a budget for the film and this is maybe not common knowledge so I won’t disclose it here.
So this was the last block of research carried out and now it is a case of going on the residency. I’m drawing up a list of sites and places that I would like to visit in Latvia. Also hoping to interview and speak with local people in Aizpute, where SERDE is located. The next update will perhaps be from Latvia.
Refs:
https://celluloidwickerman.com/2016/03/07/responses-disappearance-at-sea-1996-tacita-dean/(accessed: 31/08/2018)
http://www.salomelamas.info/projects-iii/extinction/(accessed: 31/08/2018)
JULY 2018: Tacita Dean & Anahita Razmi
Two events that I attended in July 2018 have provided fruitful in terms of providing inspiration for film making.
These were:
Tacita Dean, Woman with a red hat, The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh (6thJuly 2018)
The first event was a kind of artists talk and Q&A between The Fruitmarket’s director Fiona Bradley and Tacita Dean. I was impressed by Tacita’s technical knowledge and ability to explain the differences between analogue and digital in a simple way. My notes that I wrote:
- In this new film she works with performance and some of the themes are actor, object and narrative or how to disrupt narrative.
- Notion of using actor as a medium
- She didn’t know so much about theatre and looked at how important the text was to an actor
- The artist is in control of the text
- The work is about enchantment and disenchantment and the film lasts for 50 mins
- There is an emotional trajectory to the piece
- The work doesn’t seek to disrupt the magic of theatre, but at the same time it is pulling the rug out from it
- When are you not self-conscious? When is an actor not self-conscious (when they are in stage)?
- Talked about an aperture gate marking system (film frame), reprinting aperture hole with 3d technology
- Talked about filming Humming birds – Film is the alchemy of the moment and can give something other mediums can’t
- It is an investment in the moment (film vs digital)
- Talked a bit about blackboard drawings
- Gathered that she uses a film crew
- There is a work in the show about the Foley artist (which is the reproduction of everyday sounds). How we would perceive these sounds differently if don’t have a film
- She realised that sound could be edited as brutally as editing a picture
- Talked about work in the show ‘The Russian Ending’ and how early cinema made two separate endings (a happy ending and a sombre sad ending)
- Talked about the mono prints of postcard collections
To come so far and die in somebody else’s war, presented as part of Anahita Razmi’s LUX residency, Goethe Institute Glasgow (19thJuly 2018)
https://luxscotland.org.uk/event/come-far-die-somebody-elses-war/
As mentioned in this journal, I had attended a film screening of ‘DDR/DDR’ at the Goethe institute and enjoyed it greatly. So I was pleased when I learned of this event. Anahita Razmi is a Berlin based artist who works in film and her current project THE FUTURE STATE, is an ongoing series of speculations around the future state of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
She selected films from the LUX archive and presented these with a selection of her own works. The films were:
- Naeem Mohaiemen, Abu Ammar is Coming, 2016. HD video, 6 min.
- Miranda Pennell, You Made Me Love You, 2005. SD video, 4 min.
- Anahita Razmi, How your Veil can help you in the Case of an Earthquake (Lesson 1-8), 2004. Video, 4 min 55 sec.
- Uriel Orlow, Remnants of the Future, 2010-2012. HD video, 18 min 15 sec.
- Ben Rivers, The Coming Race, 2007. 16mm transferred to HD. 5 min.
- Anahita Razmi, White Wall Tehran, 2007. Video, 45 sec.
- Anahita Razmi, PARTIES, 2018. Video, 2 min 50 sec.
- Hildegarde Duane, Meltdown, 1982. HD Video, 1 min 15 sec.
All of the films were interesting and my particular favourite was Uriel Orlow’s ‘Remnants of the Future’. The film connected with me because it featured a deserted communist era housing blocks that was being taken apart for salvage. Researching the film revealed that it was in the north of Armenia, near the town of Gyumri. In 2013 I did a short residency in Armenia and while travelling around the country I did see buildings such as this. It is these particular types of Utopian constructions that I am interested in exploring during the residency in Latvia 2018.
The screening was then followed by a conversation between the artist and Dr Azadeh Emadi, Lecturer in Screen Production (Theatre, Film and Television Studies) at The University of Glasgow.
APRIL – MAY 2018: BRUT Europe and DDR/DDR
As part of my interest in the subject of The Cold War legacy and research for a 2 week residency in September, I attended two events during the Glasgow International Festival in April this year (2018). The first event was BRUT Europe and was held at the Glasgow School of Art.
Organised by Artist Marija Nemčenko, the Lithuanian Cultural Institute and the European Commission in the UK BRUT Europe, a day of talks, screenings and workshops exploring the phenomenon of European Modernist architecture in contemporary cities.
The speakers examined the complexities of Modernist architecture across Europe, with examples ranging from St Peter’s Seminary in Cardross and the disappearing high-rises of Glasgow, to block multi-story houses in Kaunas, Lithuania. Speakers included: Edward Hollis, Chris Leslie, Hussein Mitha, Evelina Simkute and Owen Hatherley
The event concluded with a screening of Chris Leslie’s award winning film Disappearing Glasgow. The event offered a fascinating glimpse into the legacy of Modernist architecture throughout Europe.
Amie Siegel’s ‘DDR/DDR’ (2008) feature length film was screened by Transit Arts at the Goethe Institute, Glasgow. The film excavates the surveillance technologies, architectures, and psychological aftermaths of the Deutsche Demokratische Republik (1949–1990). The film interweaves contemporary interview footage and cinematic tableaus that glide through the stark interior and exterior landscapes of Modernist East Germany with archival visual samples gleaned from disguised micro-cameras, indexing the espionage culture of their production. Siegel’s deeply associative technique traces the physical and psychic residues of a regime marked by its extensive state-sanctioned surveillance industry whilst undertaking another, self-reflexive inspection of the documentary form, its implicit surveillance, and performances of authority and objectivity.
The screening was preceded by an introduction from Professor Laura Bradley, Chair of German and Theatre at the University of Edinburgh and a specialist in the cultural legacy of the GDR.
