From my formative assessment 06/05/21, I have learnt to approach documentation further in regards to the way I capture the space as a whole. This was a large point made by Jane is that once the work is installed it becomes a lot about the space too, which I have begun to consider but including the space as part of the documentation is something I am working on.
Artists Gary Hill’s documentation was noted in my formative assessment by Jane. He documents his works in a variety of ways. See image below of Choir Box on his website, he firstly focuses in on the space of which it is and then as the images develop he zones into the projection of the art work. I had started to do this with installation for the exhibition proposal, but not quite enough. This will really help with the way I document my work for my portfolio.
Reflection 22/05/21: Researching Hill’s use of documentation has been very beneficial when documenting my own recently, it has not only improved my portfolio by also the perception of my work. I followed the similar path of Hill’s documentation in regards to the editing of the films/lighting etc so they appear darker, to pretend it is a more intense space with less lighting. It’s help acknowledge the use of the space in relation to the work while remaining a strong projection.
Especially in The Slow Torque of Bonsai, the spaces he installs in are rather industrial which play to the slight distortion and impact they have on his films. The studios at uni are quite industrial so it might be important to capture all aspects of the space, from the height of the walls and ceiling where the projection will be, to entrance of the studio box. For my documentation of Sweet Box I filmed through the box which have successful films outcomes, but then also have an image of documentation of myself filming in the box, you can see me, the box, the projection and the space the box was sat in. It helps gives the viewers/audience more of an idea of scale, space and placement.
Gary Hill, The Slow Torque of Bonsai, 2017.
I think working from the way Hill documents his work, will give a better scope of the film as well as the sense of the disturbance and uncomfortable you feel from viewing my projections. As recently research after my formative assessment, regarding Half Foster and Julia Kristeva, the abjection that is presenting my work may have a bigger impact if you can see the scale of the space in relation tot he viewers and the audience. The larger the installation/documentation I go the more intense/unusual the space will feel in relation to smaller bodies (being the viewers) in a consuming/overwhelming space.
Foster writes “Sometimes the screen seems so torn that the object-gaze not only invades the subject-as-picture but overwhelms it.” (Foster, 1996, p113), the picture becomes so impactful it makes the gaze not strong enough to hold its gaze at the work. I wonder with a work being documentated of it’s scale properly like when I’m present in there, it may encourage more of this overwhelming feeling like Sherman’s work evokes. Sherman’s work is much heavily in the straight forward visual of the grotesque as “Sherman evokes these extreme conditions in some disaster scenes” (Foster, 1996, p 111), my projections of To Bite B&W Repeat are more visually uncomfortable and disturbing in the sense of identifying with the breasts or the male’s mouth.
From my 1-1 with Gary we discussed artist Ana Mendieta. She was a Radical feminist artist who was known for her ‘earth-body’ works. She heavily is known for her performance pieces, one of which she created called Untitled (Facial Hair Transplants). Mendieta worked with exploiting and the “differentiating between the feminine and the masculine.” (Hammer, 2021) by breaking those boundaries down through the use of facial hair. “By gluing her friend’s beard onto her (female) face, she highlighted the fact that sexual classifications are social conventions that frame and overdetermine sexualities” (Hammer, 2021). See below, her documentation of this performance was done very well too. There is close up capturing details of the hair on the face as well as the environment she was in while cutting and sticking the facial hair on. It become snot only the final outcome so the image but also the process of it too.
Reflection 26/05/21: There is this relation to the way Valie Export works, although her artwork is very performance heavy in the sense she physically connects to the audience with her piece Tap and Touch Cinema, Mendieta uses emotional and intense theories like Rape, which are so displayed so life like, it connects to the audience on an emotional level. People are tend to affected by realistic/life like situation like these series below, but it appears from feedback, my work receives a similar response even though it’s not real physical female consumption of an actual body, it plays on female consumption, it is perceived this way which has resulted in concerning/disturbed ways the same.
Ana Mendieta, Untitled (Facial Hair Transplants), 1972/1997.
Mendieta focus on controversial issues of the female form, violence, rape and inequality. Many of which feel intense and extremely disturbing. She places herself and her installations in open area works, especially her Rape series, see below, as though they are images of actual cases/events. It feels like it’s something you shouldn’t be seeing, as though it should be part of a case study for a case. “It was created in response to a brutal and highly publicised rape and murder of a nursing student, Sara Ann Otten, by another student in March 1973.” (Tate, n.d.) which makes this image even more vivid, to make it as real as possible, for people to stop and think. They feel personal and the “recurring use of her own body – its physical and photographic traces – and her interest in marginal outdoor sites and elemental materials” (Art Blart, n.d.) impacts the way we receive the work. These images are then seen as photographs, the display of them provides the viewer with an object to observe of the scene. “She had created this work ‘as a reaction against the idea of violence against women’” (Tate, n.d.).
Ana Mendieta, Rape, 1948 – 1985.
The meaning behind her works of female rape are extremely challenging to view and aren’t in my scope of meaning, Gary suggested this artists in the relation to his reaction of the male violence visible with the breast being eaten but I see as it a source of documentation for my portfolio.
!!! I don’t think this shares relation to the actual meaning of my work as this is a different direction, but the intensity of her documentation and ideas of male dominance explored are present in some way in To Bite B&W Repeat. The way she documented them and then created outcomes are very interesting, it adds another level to her work, a more personal and intense level which may be interesting to work with.
