Francis Alÿs Sometimes ‘Making Something Leads to Nothing’ (1997)
My Recent performance/Video work has been looking at the absurd; I have been doing rather than having done to me. I have looked at two contemporary artists who in their own way look at absurdist themes. Francis Alÿs attempts this by pushing around a block of ice until it melts through the hot streets of Mexico City in 1997, this act seems ultimately futile as the ice melts due to the heat, and it has no meaning in the fact that it would be easier to carry the object. That’s if he needed it. The very fact he is pushing then kicking the object around becomes playful, an experiment to decipher how long the ice will last for instance. He keeps going walking past people in the street, some paying attention others not choosing to view the absurd act. The Ice eventually melts completely. ‘Something Leads to Nothing.’
In ‘Park the Bench’ I drag the home made pallet bench across a bridge seemingly from know where the film follows the acts through the city centre weaving in and of the crowds to get to the end point nature is seen in parts but the film ends the moment the bench is placed in front of the golden gates of the guild hall in Worcester someone taking pictures of the hall in the back drop. I sit down and wait the film ends there. Is this a protest or just moving of a home? Does the bench belong to me (?) why the guildhall. Why not take the bench to the park or field somewhere secluded? In ‘Conjunction’ the film ends abruptly once I pass through the doors.
Simon Raven ‘The Plough’ (2010).
Raven walks down secluded streets and city’s/public areas dragging what looks to be an old plough a comment on agriculture? Look closer though and you see that it is a satellite dish in ravens own words he comments ‘I was filmed from midnight until dawn dragging a domestic satellite dish through the outskirts of an unnamed city, from a motorway intersection, through a snow-covered golf course to a retail park. Scandal surrounding newspaper hacking/muck-raking was in the news at the time.’ His protest seemingly unseen becomes futile but this maybe a comments on how we are being watched by un seen entities.
At times in ‘Conjunction’ and ‘Parking the Bench’ I become unseen to the public eye, people choosing to not take notice to walk on and not help. Admittedly it does capture the eye of on lookers as well but the absurdist is captured like in Ravens piece ‘The Plough’. Conjunction ends abruptly with me walking into the Hive, Ravens piece finishes with him vanishing into the morning.
Simon Raven ‘The Book Worm’ (2012)
Ravens piece ‘Book Worm’ informed me on how to capture moments in the film with a stable still camera; both ‘Conjunction’ and ‘Park the Bench’ are filmed this way. I took instruct from the manor in which Ravens ‘Book Worm’ was filmed. The side, front and back profiles still steady shots allow for us to see a, moving painting the public cars and nature captured within the frame of the image along with the absurdity, which lied within.
