Notes marking out the structure of the first of two essays within the contextual report/archive (creative version of dissertation). They don’t reference my own work directly – written under a pseudonym – but describe and places the book within a definite context (which by definition should be the purpose!)
The Unmade and The Unfinished Collection
pt.1 The Unmade
Examines the role of the ‘unmade’ works of art/film/literature which have passed into critical and academic mythology. The half life they inhabit, their worth, and how perception of them changes when elements are published or exhibited.
A focus on Kubrick’s unmade film ‘The Aryan Papers’ as an example of a completely unmade work with an existence through the archives of the filmmaker and the mythologising and research of interested parties. The film had been in development for over 20 years before being finally shelved by Kubrick, ostensibly due to the release of Schindler’s List (too similar a storyline), but it is suspected by many close to the director he found the subject matter too overwhelming and was unable to work objectively as an artist or disassociate himself from the darkness of the themes.
Last year Jane and Louise Wilson were invited to make work based around the extensive archives left by Kubrick and chose The Aryan Papers as their subject. Their film centres on the actress cast to play the lead role, and the effect of the film (its lack) on herself. In doing this the Wilson twins have shifted the subject matter from the Holocaust which Kubrick himself found so difficult to enunciate, but to the unmade film itself. The film represents its ghostlike qualities, alongside the unknown potential and fallout.
pt.2 The Unfinished Collection
Walter Benjamin and The Arcades Project the key example of an unfinished work that is placed well within the conventions of a collection. Passed again into a mythological state, but in this case has been published. Arguments as to why this type of work remains unfinished: is it the all encompassing boundaries of the subject which render the work innately impossible to complete, or the attitude of the author where the collecting impulse has overwhelmed that of the creative?
Could it be argued that if the work is impossible to ‘finish’ in the eyes of the creator/collector then the point at which it is published or exhibited (even if due to the death of the author) then that is the work completed – as a personal project of collecting.
Other examples: Aby Warburg’s ‘Mnemosyne Atlas’ (unfinished), Hanne Darboven’s ‘Cultural History’ (finished?)
Conclusions
How the works discussed can form the basis of a set of conventions for distinct genre into which these works can be placed.
