studio films
Recently I have been making a few ‘low-fi’ films (using my mobile phone) here at Wysing in the ‘privacy’ of my studio. I have now up-loaded them onto my website and would very much appreciate some feedback either through this blog, over lunch or in my studio.
To view the films go to my website here http://davidkefford.com/then click on the WORKS tab and go to Studio Films.
Thanks
[...] aletha @ pearls events wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptRecently I have been making a few ‘low-fi’ films here at Wysing in the ‘privacy’ of my studio. I have now up-loaded them onto my website and would very much appreciate some feedback either through this blog, over lunch or in my studio. … [...]
Pingback by studio films | How-to Build Your Own Home Studio — June 9, 2008 @ 12:05 pm
The small screen on a desktop monitor (no matter how hi the res) does not show David’s films very clearly, but for me it works as an ideal format deliberately chosen for the projects - although not quite so for Soothes.Heals.Calms.Protects for which I still needed to see what was happening in more detail. So I felt that its calm title clashed with my feeling of slight frustration while watching it.
I liked the relatively strong tension created in such a small format and in such a short time in Agitation and Wind-up/Un-wind. To me they were like some of his drawings emerging in an alternative form, bursting with vigour suggesting that at any moment something may change or explode.
Double Rub has the same visual expressiveness but with an added strangely mischievous quality created by mirroring the image. However, it does not end there. To my way of thinking, when there is a mirror, there is also a hidden layer carrying limitless views and feelings. Perhaps I should have saved this sentence for Boot Polish.
I felt Boot Polish was something quite different. The mirror leaning against the wall reflects only the occasional image of him polishing the boot which is placed in the foreground with a purposeful emphasis. Questions began to invade my mind. Where is he going to go? Not a party for sure. It must be a long walk. A long walk along a long path beyond which there will be another long path. His companion, the man in the mirror, will show himself to him only once in a while. I had to stop my thoughts drifting away further for what in reality was happening was that David was filming Time.
David planted the camera in one position and started doing a mundane activity. It could have easily been washing up or shaving. Filming Time is like a sunset, every shot is beautiful and one can never see two the same. Many people have done this before and many people will do it in future, and each will look different. Helen did in her U, and Katherine did her Luce del Mattino so beautifully in that empty room in Italy. Italy… where in 1962 Michelangelo Antonioni did almost the same thing by making L’Eclipse. At times the camera stayed on Vittoria (Monica Vitti), with her doing absolutely nothing for a long time.
“I hope we’ll see more of this, David.”
Abbas
Comment by Abbas Hashemi — June 12, 2008 @ 6:09 pm
thanks for your comment Abbas and for the following conversations about the films at Wysing. Hopefully, you will be seeing more of this kind of work (like you say time-based ‘ordinary’ mundane daily things - subverted and disturbed). I am planning to use the project space to test out some new ideas. watch this space……………………
oh, the other artists I referred to in out chats were Vito Acconci who made the installation/performance piece SEEDBED, where he lay under the floorboards of a gallery masturbating while making explicit his fantasies to the ‘audience’ who entered the space to “involve the public in the work’s production by creating a situation of reciprocal interchange between artist and viewer” (wikipedia). Bruce Nauman (the film of him walking around his studio in an exaggerated manner + a whole host of others!) and the ‘falling’ films of Bas Jan Ader (check out his excellent website). Also go to Youtube to watch some of these films.
you referred to TIME in your comment. For me, spending time in the studio is often a solitary, contemplative act, so in a sense these films attempt to share some of that ‘isolation’ and moments of passing time. (tasks, rituals, habits,)
I thought it was also worth mentioning that in the film Boot Polish (with the mirror)I am using Baby Oil to polish the Dr Martin Boots (specific symbolic ‘footwear’, with contradictory subversive undertones). I guess this needs to be made clear to add ‘context’ to the narrative?
Comment by davidk — June 19, 2008 @ 9:34 am