Week 9 lecture

In week 9 we began the lecture by watching a video by Christian Marclay.  Christian Marclay is a visual artist and composer, whose work involves exploring the connection, sound, noise, photography, video and film.  He was also one of the first pioneers of using records and Turntables as live instruments. We watch his piece called “Guitar Drag”.  This Video starts with a 40’s style pickup truck out in mid-west America.  In the video he ties a plugged in Electric guitar to the back of the pickup truck and proceeds to drag it down the road.  The way the guitar is dragged down the road is a torture technique that was used against Black people in America in the 40’s and 50’s, hence the old pickup truck.      The video is supposed to show how race relations in America haven’t really got any better between White people and African American people.  The reaction trying to be provoked from this video is that people would still be more outraged if a Vintage Fender Stratocaster was dragged down a dirt road, than if a black man was.  Personally I thought it was quite a good video, but to be totally honest my first reaction was that I couldn’t believe they were dragging a Vintage guitar down a dirt road, But it wasn’t because of my views on slavery and America history, it was basically because I didn’t understand it at the start, and I just reacted to what I saw.

This lead on to use discussing the three main points of a moving picture; they are: The story doesn’t have to be obvious, It should always be an aesthetically experience, and it should be emotionally crippling or visceral.  We were then shown a video by a previous student, this video was supposed to show how attached he was to his drums, and it was a just a very aesthetically pleasing video, with close shots of his drum kit.  Now it looked brilliant and was very well marked and received, but personally I just did not feel anything nor did it provoke me in anyway, which is two of the main things a piece should do, but I guess everyone has different views and opinions. 

The final video we watched was a piece by a man called Bill Viola.  Bill Viola is a Contemporary video artist, whose work focus on the human experience such as birth life and death, his work is all about evoking emotion.  The piece we watched when exhibited was shown on three the first showing a birth, the second showing a man drowning and the third showing death.  The entire concept was meant to show life and how you basically are born and then struggle until you die, which is a very poor outlook on life, but sometimes I can see what he means.  The video itself wasn’t particularly well shot, and wasn’t enhanced or sugar coated in any way, which I personally thought was brilliant and way head of it’s time. All the footage in the video is real except the man drowning, which I think really brings the message home, and cause a real deep human connection, and although some in the lecture didn’t like it and said the could connect with it, I don’t believe them, because its one of the few things every man and woman have in common. 

Overall this was my favourite piece of visual art, out of the three videos this one blew me away, simply because I connected with it straight away, and also because it was so graphic and real, you just take your eyes of it.