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Obstruction 3

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Week 8 Video Review

Catch Air, Robin Rhode

Robin Rhode’s artwork lies in the middle between the juxtaposition of form and formless, the real and the illusionary, and the cultural infusion that transforms them both. In his work, Rhodes uses 2D, graffiti drawings as a backdrop to photograph performances that highlight Rhode’s thoughts and desires. Desires such as a bicycle represent a formless and illusionary desire. Yet, Rhode’s body is not formless and illusionary; Rhode’s is alive and through his actions (depicted in the photographs) so too are his desires (in this case the bicycle). Through this juxtaposition, Rhode’s performances give the illusionary drawings tangibility and physicality.

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Week 7 Video Review

Re-Animated: Arrival  

The opening animation of the short film suggests that the stunning visuals will construct the narrative of the piece, yet the deep and sultry voice over is closer to a form of ASMR than it is a philosophical narration. The viewers journey through the sprawling, alive 3D landscape aids in further immersing the viewer in the voice over. Rather than the visuals informing the voice over, the voice over informs our (the audiences) journey through the 3D realm with the visuals acting as an aid to the voice over.  

An Artist Walks into a Bar,  Aki Sasamoto

The art of Aki Sasamoto is silly and absurd in an incredible way. Often as an artist, I find my own art, and the art of others bogged down with heavy philosophical and nonsensical subtext; an estrangement from life, from reality to find subject, form, and meaning. However, Aki Sasamoto’s is the opposite; rather than dwelling on the philosophical and the metaphysics of her experience, she recreates her experiences outright for audiences. While most of her pieces lean towards the abstract, they are also extremely literal in context. Her abstract performance pieces tangibly express the most mundane, and yet the most real of emotions; each piece is relatable to our collective human experience in the modern world. Each piece is her life, and her life is an art piece.  

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Week 6 Video Review

Copy Shop

Fading in from black, the mechanical motion of the photo copier introduces us (the audience) to our protagonist; a regular, unsuspecting man who works as a photo copier. What’s so brilliant about this short film is that the process of photo copying (the medium in which the film is created) forms the narrative of the film both in plot and style. The medium becomes a tangible character within the film taking on a form of its own through the actions of the protagonist. Copy Shop is an excellent example of how medium informs art.

Simbiosis Carnal

Within the first few seconds of the short film, the hand drawn animation style and color palette of Simbiosis Carnal immediately grabs the viewers' attention. This experimental and colorful history of biology, evolution, and sex from the dawn of time utilizes the full freedom and range of its art style to tell a captivating and delicate story. Conveying intense emotions through fluid, abstract line work as well as through thinly vailed metaphors, Simbiosis Carnal brilliantly captures the physical feelings of sex, and the social emotions surrounding sex in our modern culture. What begins as an engaging history of sex and evolution ends as a smart social commentary of how sex is displayed and altered in our modern world.

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Obstruction #2

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Week 5 Video Review

Bill Viola

Bill Viola in his short documentary Cameras are Soul Keepers discusses his work and the childhood/ trauma that inspired him. With each new piece, Viola delves deeper into the metaphysical properties of his work including scientific principles (the flow of electrons), philosophical ideologies, and the intricate details of his personal life. Violas moving images and installation pieces hold an intrinsically emotional resonance as they capture the color, light, and sound of Viola’s imagination; a dark, surreal, and hypnotic vision that highlights movement, flow, and sound.

Pipilotti Rist

Pipilotti Rist in her short documentary We Get Used to Fast Constraints, Rist delves into the meaning of her installations and the purpose behind them. Each installation seeks to transform and break the social constraints surrounding our modern electronics. In her work, Rist emphasizes the relationship our modern electronics have with the spaces they occupy. For example, her home theater projection piece takes up the entirety of two huge walls in the gallery allowing viewers an enormous space in which to watch her films; the work challenges the small (by comparison) spaces modern movie theaters force their viewers to watch in.  

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Week 4 Video Review

The Gunfighter, Nick Offerman

Sweeping orchestral music plays as a thriving, old fashion western town looms into view. Before the viewer is a stereotypically western situation; a loan gunfighter enters a crowded saloon to dole out swift, lead justice. However, the silence of the scene is broken by an incorporeal, godly voice that narrates the scene to the gunfighter and the rest of the bar's patrons. Acting as an omnipotent character alongside the rest of the bar's patrons, the narrator (Nick Offerman) usurps the agency of the on-screen characters for his own ends. The appearance and use of the phantom narrator in The Gunfighter challenges the typical narrative flow of film and the agency of on-screen characters.  

The Wanderer, Carl Sagan/Erik Wernquist  

The gentle yet thundering voice of a deceased Carl Sagan transitions us (the audience) into the unbelievable; a future for humanity that involves a small group of the now trans-planetary human species travelling across our solar system. This short film is about adventure of the most extraordinary kind, but the realistic 3D images and scenes would feel floaty and pointless without the voice over. In this case, the voice over serves as the narrative backbone to the on-screen visuals giving them form, context, and a natural order that aligns to the dialogue of the voice over. The prolific words of Carl Sagan are used to pronounced effect here.  

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Week 3 Video Review

WINDOWS, Peter Greenaway, 1975

From the beginning of the video, the artist aligns us with the focus of the piece; a plain bedroom window sits in the center of a medium shot frame. The serene backdrop is broken by an interlude of energetic music. The title pops into frame, and we (the audience) are once again acquainted with the subject matter; “Windows”. The artist further juxtaposes the simple, calming shots of windows with harrowing tales of people falling out of windows and window related accidents; a niche area of history/ statistics to be sure, but one that is closely related to the subject matter. This piece speaks to the duality of windows, of a frame within a frame. Windows provided views to the outside, to the world beyond like a portal. However, if you try and step through the portal, through the window and into the world beyond, you could easily perish as a result.  

New York City, Capitalism, and Lost Book Found, Carlo Anghel-Haltrich  

New York City, Capitalism, and Lost Book Found chronicles a gritty, desolate, and hidden city. With New York City being the idealist symbol of the American dream, Lost Book Found’s perspective on the city opens the door to a forgotten world. The angled camera perspective shields the faces of those walking past the camera making them out to be egoless ghosts; constantly moving passengers who’s only remaining identity is the trash they leave behind. The grey and muted tone of the film emphasizes the often melancholy and mystical overtones of the city with colorless figures moving thoughtlessly through the city streets.

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Influences

Educational Videos-Lessons from the screenplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWz1E3oHd8w

-Kyle Hill: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mD4J5VUwiAs&list=PLNg1m3Od-GgNmXngCCJaJBqqm-7wQqGAW&index=5

Philosophical Videos-Wisecrack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stHk4_VePds

MUSIC

Starlight Brigade art style: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9Q3i5w6-Ug

TV

Cowboy Bepop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDETVPFdbT4

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Inspirations

Sergei Eisenstein: I love the abstract and subtlety of his montage sequences. Especially his use of motion and cross dissolves. 

Vincent Van Gogh: “Starry Night” “Cafe Terrace at Night” “Wheatfield with Crows” and “Bowl of Sunflowers” are among some of my favorite of his impressionistic paintings.

Fritz Lang: The early use of non-diegetic sound, and world building through sound design are incredibly inspiring. M is my favorite Fritz Lang film with Metropolis a close second. 

Ridley Scott: The set design and world building in his films is incredibly detailed.

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Trans bodies in art form: a dissection

Throughout the entire class, I have been searching for a voice; a particularly safe yet unhinged way to proclaim my transness, to fight against the systemic oppression I feel on a daily basis. For whatever reason though, I have yet to unleash my voice (honestly, I think I’m being too careful about it, thinking too hard about subject matter, form, sound, visuals, iconography, social response; you get the picture). 

With this new, upcoming project however, I want to radicalize my art form and unleash the full power of my creativity; I’d like to discuss trans bodies and capture what it feels like to be trans in public spaces. I want to discuss what it means to be trans in body not just in pronouns/ name only (I’m not invalidating the social experience of non-medically transitioning trans men and women through my art). A great generator for stereotypes, misgivings, and problematic depictions of minority groups is Hollywood itself. 

In my Cinematic Essay, I might use, reference, and subvert problematic depictions of trans bodies within mass media (film, television, news broadcasts, ect).

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Sophie Obstruction

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Iterations of a Window

Retrograde

Travelling down the black asphalt road, from the streetlight, local house, or some such place lays a wide field of green grass. In the morning, the grass shines with the drops of life in the light of a new day morn. A tree, giant and snarling outreaches its brown, barky tendrils beyond the uncut sea towards a tan walkway. Leaves, directionless and smothering cover the landscape with their decay. The tan walkway beckons to the wary traveler hungry and wanting; weeds that parasitically consume the mulch that surrounds the walkway threaten to trap, to ensnare the frequent passersby. Friends and family alike dodge the envious plants on their way into the adjoined doorway. Overlooking this symphony, are an army of insects caught in a deadly dance; Spiders weave their homes and build their traps. Ants and various beetles' scurry hurriedly along past their long-deceased kin. Holding them in their microcosm is a thin, grey hexagonal mesh. Surveying this microcosm with eyes morbid and gleaming is me.  

Metaphorical

Through the looking glass of life's great Lense stands the grey barrier. A construction of Sulley complexion and dynamic design. Joining the Lense and barrier is a field of virgin flowers blackened by Thanatos. The carcasses of misfortune line the virgin field with traps of silk, weaved by Arachne herself, dotting the edges. Beyond the virgin field lies a golden pathway, a road for the departing traveler, family, friend, a mystery. The road runs along the green fields of Elysium, righteous and heaving. The uncut memories of thousands, long and swaying, shimmer when greeted by the lights of Helios and the breeze of better days. Ferrying passengers to and from the forgotten field is Lewis’s grey road; stretching for a long way, oozing the color of malice and malcontent; a true ferryman for the heavens beyond my underworld.

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The World Outside My Window

Outside my window, I can see the thin, grey hexagonal mesh that separates the window from the outside. All along the plastic railing that joins the two pieces are bugs, dead and alive alike: Stink Bugs, Spiders, Ants, various beetles. Spider webs dot the corners of the frame, the spiders dancing along their webs, weaving their homes, building their traps. Moving outward, I can see the tan sidewalk below that joins the doorway of my home to my driveway. I can see the plants that line the walk, the weeds that feed off them, the mulch that they both inhabit. Beyond that, I see the sea of growing, uncut grass that swallows the landscape around a giant tree. Occasionally, lines will streak through the grass to the driveway/ street beyond it as my friends, my family walk to their cars. Early in the morning light, the grass sparkles with dew and mist. The giant tree stands resolute in the center of the sea, it’s small but mighty branches swaying in the morning breeze. The leaves, having been parted from the tree by the afternoon gale, float, and scatter across the grass and walkway. Beyond the walkway, beyond the sea of grass, beyond the resolute tree is an asphalt roadway, black and menacing that leads to the world beyond: the other houses on our street, the streetlight down the way and the highway beyond. As diverse and inspiring as it is, this is the world outside my window.  

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Week 2 films: an analysis

Gonge: By Maria Antolini

A star wipe transitions the frame from blackness to a closeup still of two girls (from a diorama set) playing in the grass (also from a diorama set). Through a series of jump cut stills, the girls are made to look as if they are swinging. A music box chimes in the background. As more diorama characters are introduced into the diorama world, jump cuts give the still diorama characters life making the world feel in motion: a mother and her son walk up to a news stand, two girls swing in the park, a boy drives his brother around on a scooter. Then, the jump cuts stop and the screen starts to turn more and more red. The music shifts to an ominous choir of child singing (I have no idea) and tones. Two snails creep into the frame. The jump cuts between individual photographic stills, which gave the characters motion, are replaced with video footage of the snails wandering around the diorama world; the characters now still and lifeless.

Decerning the meaning behind this film is difficult as I found it hard to relate to the diorama world. However, the materialistic nature/ “fakeness” of the diorama world was brilliantly juxtaposed with the jump cuts to create a surreal, uncanny valley; while we as the audience know that the diorama world isn’t real, the jump cuts make the world and the characters feel so lifelike inducing a feeling of unease and general creepiness. When the snails are introduced and the jump cuts stop, the uncanny valley effect is elevated further as we try to discern reality from the fictional space. It’s interesting, and I’m intrigued to hear other people’s perspective on the film.

Photocopy Cha Cha  

Much like the film Gong, Photocopy Cha Cha combines dozens of photocopied, still images together to create the illusion of movement (like how old movie cameras worked). Despite the clear impression of a face and hands created by scan, the characters face, proportions, and color information are distorted by the machine. In this way, the photocopier itself acts as a backdrop for the artists surreal take on the human body, movement, and expression. Accompanying the green and yellow photocopied imagery the artists distorted hands and face is a symphony of different noises, sounds, music, and a voice over that sounds right out of a 50’s TV ad.  

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Passage (Mohau Modisakeng): an analysis

The short film opens with a wide, top down shot of a person of color laying on their back floating in a partially submerged, little, white rowboat (adrift in a wider ocean). The person (dressed all in black) floats on their back, their arms crossed across their chest, their eyes closed. As the film continues, they begin to float around the interior of the rowboat, slowly drifting their arms, legs, and torso around the interior of the submerged space. Then, the film opens up to reveal 3 separate channels each with similar (in color, subject matter, and location) videos; in one of the other videos, the person floats, flails, and swims around just underneath the waters surface. In the final video, the person (again in the rowboat) flails and thrashes around in the rowboat as it sinks into the ocean depths. 

In all of the videos, the colors of the rowboat, the subject, and the surrounding water are intentionally muted and darkened as to produce a bleak and hopeless tone. The iconography of the person laying length wise in the rowboat, in my mind, harkened back to imagery of slave ship design and “cargo” storage; the grotesque and inhumane placement of human beings along the interior of slave ships to maximize space. The choreography, in conjunction with the cinematography, of the subject across all of the videos produces feelings of desperation and displacement; the wide shot produces a feeling of distance and perspective as if to put on display the practice of slavery as a whole rather than to personalize the slave ship journey through the eyes of a single person. 

Overall, I found the work emotionally impactful and creatively inspired. The utilization of “traditional” slave ship iconography combined with the choreography and “distant” cinematography generated a profoundly hopeless tone that permeated throughout the entire piece. This piece is humanizing and haunting leaving a hollow impression on its viewers.