Gra-ham Kelly

What?

lions & tigers, lion tamer, camera, controls, cradle is a video installation in which a video projection that combines found and studio-shot footage is partially disrupted and redirected by a mirror. The work is situated in the corner of a darkened room and both the mirror and projector are installed on collapsible stands. The 30cm squared mirror is positioned in front of the lower right section of the projection, causing a fragment of the image to be redirected onto the adjacent wall.

The video begins with low resolution found video footage of a lion tamer directing a group of lions and tigers to line up and rise up onto their hind legs in unison. As the performer begins to lift his outstretched arms, the signal for the animals to rise, he steps back into the reflected area of the projection and is removed from the main image. As he continues this gesture from the adjoining wall, the main image cuts to a rear view of a consumer video camera set against a white backdrop.

The camera is shot with a shallow depth of field so that the open viewfinder is out of focus. It is framed so that its controls match the position of the lion tamer in the previous shot, so are therefore also obscured by the mirror. A relay effect is formed between the two images as the removed section, the lion tamer, remains on the adjoining wall.

The projection is comprised of three shots. The third is of an almost static Newton's cradle executive toy. The object is framed so the the steel ball to the right is removed from the image. Split into three sequences, the work forms interplays between these three individual components.

How?

The found footage of the lion tamer formed a framework for both the formal and conceptual qualities of the subsequent self-shot elements and also the size, shape and position of the mirror. A number of shots with minute changes were taken of the camera and executive toy to find the optimum framing for each one. Once the footage was collated, further refinements were made to match the removed sections with the shadow of the angled mirror. This was followed by a period of editing with the consideration of a single image split into two.

Why?

This work is a continuation of experiments in materialising edits into sculptural forms, in which the viewer becomes directly implicated in a transition that extends into their immediate surroundings. My initial motivations for making this specific work were to examine power relations within images as an investigation into what it may mean to capture and manipulate subjects through video and as a further investigation into the presence and transference of power in wider contexts.

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Static/Ephemeral

The Everly Brothers are seen to age around the looped repetition of the lyric 'dream' from a range of performances of 'All I have to do is dream', spanning decades. This lyric remains the same while its hosts deteriorate in the background. It provides a static constant, against which its ever shifting context can be observed and interpreted.

Holiday

A group of people aged between 18 and 79 on a coach journey between an airport and a generic hotel with a generic name in an anglicised coastal Mediterranean town, who have all paid the same with very different intentions.

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The work of art in the age of digital recombination

As the title suggests, Jos de Mul's 'The work of art in the age of digital recombination' builds upon Walter Benjamin's seminal essay 'The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction' by presenting an argument that shifts the digital database to the position to the ontological model. Mul suggests that Benjamin's transformation from cult value to exhibition value is now a transformation to manipulation value.

It begins with a brief overview of key terms from Benjamin's essay, with particular reference to the identification of the artworks that hold an aura:

The auratic work of art acts as an interface between the sensible and the supersensible, that is: between the physical materiality of the work of art and its meaningful history.

The auratic work holds cult value. It remains in a single context from its creation to its subsequent exhibition, storage and degradation. In the age of mechanical reproduction the aura withers. There is little or no difference between an original image and its reproduction diverting attention away from its linear singular history, resulting in a shift from cult to exhibition value.

Mul suggests that works of art that utilise a user-operated digital database shifts value once again to the perspective of manipulation. The aura remerges due to the almost infinite possible unique recombinations of digital material. The database provides the means to form building blocks from digital material for the formation of an original work.

Remixing and Remixability

Lev Manovich's essay, 'Remixing and Remixability' begins with the identification of flows of information coupled by digital media platforms such as: social networking sites, blogs and RSS. He argues that, compared to the traditional movement of information from one source to another, the point of reception is just a 'temporary station on information's path'.

He outlines that the notion of borrowing and reworking cultural material is not a new one, reaching back to Ancient Rome remixing aspects of Ancient Greek culture. He also suggests that there is no difference between the micro and macro levels of 'remixability'. Be it a musician sampling another artists work, a large media company recycling other company's designs or an individual copying and pasting text into an email, all are demonstrating the same process.

The cultural materials from which the remix is created, is described in terms of modular units. Manovich questions wether cultural material will become universally modular. In photo sharing websites such as Flickr, an image is separated into blocks by notes or tags. In this example, it is the user who is modularizing the culture through a prescribed system though users have been modularising culture for decades from TV fans creating their own “slash films” to pop art, appropriation and video art. Manovich concludes by opening up the argument to the consideration of the computer as modularised on a structural level; images comprise of pixels, videos of layers and webpages of HTML text.

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Synopsis of a clip from The Paul Ryan Show: In Conversation with Rock Hudson 1982

In the 1982 US television special, The Paul Ryan Show: In Conversation with Rock Hudson, a 57 year old Hudson recounts a recent experience of happening upon the 1956 Hollywood film GIANT on television, in which he starred at the age of 29. He is sitting to the right of Ryan in a sparsely dressed set that consists of just two wooden-framed armchairs upon an oval stage, set against a black backdrop. The actor begins the story with an air of tentativeness with the line, 'I must tell you something interesting... perhaps not interesting, perhaps boring'.

He proceeds to express his dislike for watching films on television, due to the interruptions of commercial breaks and expresses further discomfort in watching himself. He explains that, with aid of ageing makeup, his portrays a character in three stages of his life: as a young man in his twenties, as middle-aged and as a seventy year old. This short anecdote culminates with Hudson tuning in at the point his character's portrayed age is the same as his actual age. He checks his reflection in a mirror and discovers that the ageing make up matches his current appearance exactly, right down to the patches of grey in his hair.

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Untitled

A steel plate measuring 62 cm by 31 cm is fixed to a wall at eye level. The surface is scratched and dull. A sequence of lines are etched into it in a semicircular formation, emanating from a single point, 3 millimetres in from the centre of its left edge. The first is 30cm long and straight. Following in a clockwise direction, the next is also 30cm but with a single kink. The next is identical to the previous but has an additional kink. The pattern continues with each score becoming slightly more degraded than its predecessor. Large areas of empty space have formed further into the image by drastic changes of the line. To the right of the bottom edge is a concentrated number of small vertical marks. A thick sheet of white paper, identical in size hangs directly to the left of the metal plate. Upon it is a mirror image of the markings etched into the steel, delineated in black ink.

Untitled

A carousel slide projector is placed at one end of a folding table, facing inwards. There is a small screen towards the middle of the table and at the opposite end is a sewing pattern with a triangular optical prism placed upon it. The projector automatically shifts through a sequence of 80 slides converted from each frame of a 4 second digital video clip of an intentional crash by a Formula 1 racing driver. The images are projected onto the screen which is constructed of white foam board; approximately A4 in size and anchored by two toolmakers' clamps. A small vertical slit in the screen allows a narrow beam of light to filter through to the other side. The ray is refracted by the prism, casting a spectrum across the sewing pattern which has been taken from a 1988 edition of Burda Modern and provides overlaying templates to produce multiple garments from the same sheet.

Coil, Logo, Theme, Spire, Eclipse, Slide

A digital video begins with a close-up of a red mosquito coil set against a green background. The coil is lit and edited with the MGM logo to give the impression that the lion's roar disrupts its plume. The lyric 'dream' from a song by The Everly Brothers loops in the background. It cuts to found tourist footage from multiple sources of the descent of a narrow spiral staircase around the exterior of a church spire. This is followed by an identical mosquito coil, obscuring the light from a projector that faces towards the camera in a darkened room. The opening scene is replayed through the projector, causing the current image to flicker. The next sequence of tourist footage depicts bathers spiralling down a concave water slide. The video returns to the opening shot until a segment of ash falls from the burning coil. It ends with a montage, in chronological order of the 'dream' lyric taken from Everly Brothers performances that span five decades.