Weird writings....
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Worlds on Video – Stozzina, Florence
I went to Florence to see some Renaissance art but to tell you the truth; I really don’t like that kind of art. I respect the amount of detail they went to, but the subject matter of religion does get a bit much after a while. How many more times can you depict Jesus? I guess that was the communication at the time, most people were illiterate so the mass media of the day was painting, sculpture and churches. I can see its appeal but I am much more modern I am afraid.
At the Strozzina I stumbled across a video art exhibit – fantastic! Could not believe my luck. I only knew a few of the people exhibiting so it was great to see new video artists and see what the ‘worlds on video’ was like. I was impressed at the standard of the exhibition set up, especially being based in an old building in the basement, it was well thought out and presented. It was more so than most exhibitions in London. The basement was like a wine cellar with curved ceilings, which would have housed the barrels of wine in alcoves, but these alcoves became the perfect house for a plasma screen. Each alcove had one screen, and in keeping with curator Anita Becker’s promise ‘creation intimate personal relationship between the video and spectator’ but using only one chair and one set of headphones per video. In the main room were many videos, each set up on the bottom of a chair (hard to describe) playing a looped version of the piece, while at the end were larger plasma screens with wide screen videos playing. The selection of video artists was wide and varied; I spent over 2 hours there and did not see everything! My favourites, just for sheer enjoyment, were Jesper Just’s A Vicious Undertow, a black and white dark and sinister music video of sorts, cinematically amazing, Julia Oschatz’s Erhwon, for its rich cartoonists appeal with surreal narrative, Isabel Rocamora’s Horizon of Exile, for the juxtaposition of beautiful sweeping landscapes with the harsh reality of woman refugees from the middle east – I watched this twice as I found it so compelling. Others were bridged on disturbing and some were just inexpecable to me, some pushed boundaries in ways I could not understand. This exhibition made me realise how I see things, or like to see them. I am a great believer in making things look beautiful yet powerful at the same time, and cinema can do this. Wide screens, compelling sound, original performances are what makes me tick. The idea is also important, but that comes after I have been captured by the imagery and sound.
Being in Florence also made me reflect on my subject matter, the more I realise that my dreams are linked to my fascination with spirit and death, then inherently my work should be about this too. Perhaps my work should be about religion? If those in the past were creating motifs about spirituality, then should I do the same? And what religion would this be? The religion of art? Of modern day society? Or my own religion? It is something I want to interweave into my work in the future.
