The open studios went really well! We got some thoughtful feedback about the piece including some kind words from someone in the film department at CSM. With regards to the set-up we went for editing the items which are necessities for the films to play, for example the TV needs to be plugged in and also needs to be on a wall. We stuck with the one cable being exposed whilst the other is hidden and then also got to researching films and ideas associated with wallpaper. Our initial thoughts went to the Coen brothers film Barton Fink where the main character has writers block and there are a bizarre series of events that continue to distract him. The link to the idea of wallpaper is the part in the film where he’s in his hotel room and the wallpaper starts to peel away, making the most incredible sound.
On rewatching the film, but being conscious of all the wallpaper, we realised most of Barton Fink can be explained by looking at the wallpaper. From the opening and closing credits, showing the wallpaper in its splendid beige beauty, it is one of the more important symbolic elements in the film. This then made us think about the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper”, where the narrator becomes pre-occupied with stripping the wallpaper, thinking she sees somebody trapped behind it. While researching the book we discovered some references to it in pop-culture. A character called Aria from the TV show “Pretty Little Liars” has decorated her room with wallpaper that is the same design for the original front cover of “The Yellow Wallpaper”. We then set about trying to purchase the same wallpaper but had to settle for the most similar one we could find and the results proved pretty successful. It gave the work a very domestic feeling while also not taking the main focus away, contributing factors to an overall narrative.
We also re-edited the film and removed any naming of the films which actually served it much better - it was now less of a video essay and more of a story being punctuated with imagery that wasn’t necessarily related but because they were next to each other a connection was found. This is then similar to the words on the other screen; we tried a couple of different ideas out - slowing the words down to one a minute, instead of having random objects we would choose them based on the first thing that came into our head when watching the film, having the colour change with the words, asking someone to think of one word to describe it and then doing synonyms of that word similar to the synonym paintings by Mel Bochner.
However, we settled on having synonyms for the word prop. We felt this was the best method of getting across that props are sideline things - they’re a support structure around which the main event is built. This way, we’re truly foregrounding the things which are usually left in the background.
The film has now been completed, ready in time for the group tutorial. We’ve been playing around with the setup/display of the screens because we tend to think that having a display that’s relative to the work adds an extra dimension that a lot of artist’s films miss sometimes. Ideas we’ve been considering have been to do with certain references to things that have been mentioned in the actual film. This includes when there’s a mention of the TV in the shining being on but not plugged in, which resulted in us dropping a cabled for one of the TVs behind the wall and the other TV actually having its own extension cable to make it a little more obvious that it’s plugged in. Another thought was to have a kind of wallpaper or in some way edit the wall on which the TVs are hanging. We even considered having some photography lights up but thought that this was a little forced and obvious as opposed to the subtlety we were originally going for. The tests will continue until the open studios Friday when we’ll make a final decision.
Monday we attended a lecture by Rebecca Ackroyd which we had mixed feelings about. We had experienced her work before the lecture at the Zabludowicz Collection and weren’t completely taken by it but found it thoughtful with regards to the space it was in. this lead to us hoping that some extra context by the artist herself would bring it to life. Unfortunately this was not the case; every time she sounded like she was about to say something which might tip the scales she would manoeuvre round it. An example being a sentence like this which came up fairly frequently. She said something along the lines of, well when I first visited the space I knew that I should really embrace the architecture since it was fairly overpowering, so I really wanted the work to do something about that. What is she referring to here? Do “something” what something did she want it to do? The notion of the work reflecting the environment is definitely an important one and something that is highly engaging but the vagueness of her intention was slightly frustrating. However, this didn’t distract from our thoughts on the work and in fact, the reason that we’re being so picky about the way she was discussing it probably means that we were just eager to learn more. And who knows, she did preface the talk with the idea that she’s not as good at talking about what she makes anymore and perhaps that’s set her free. One of the more poignant things she said was that the work is focused around a loss of familiarity which she described as visitors potentially feeling un-comfy. This comes out of using recognisable imagery such as body parts or everyday objects (carpets or blinds) but editing them in some way to set uncertainty in motion. This felt very relevant with regards to our own work – attempting to engage an audience, draw them in with familiarity but then leave a mystery or scenario unsolved.
The tutorial was fairly successful! Success here being defined as good amount of constructive feedback and plenty of applicable references to go away and research. Something that was mentioned was the line "did I mention weapons" which was too much of an attempt to be funny. We agree about this and the deadpan delivery is knowing enough for carry it through without forcing it. Another comment was that it felt like some sort of test which we had noticed before but weren’t sure if other people would too. It does definitely look like an association game/test similar to the one in Blade Runner where they ask them to image certain things and monitor their reactions. Here perhaps what is potentially being monitored is whether or not you can find a connection between the words and the imagery. Another very relevant observation was that we have always stopped and started stories because of reading; it’s quite rare to fit down and read an entire book but until recently one would always watch a film in one go. However, now with Netflix and other online providers we’re able to watch for any length of time. The point being that one is now able to almost edit a film as they watch it. Just in the same way we’ve put various bits and pieces together to tell a particular kind of story, other people may start and stop a film and get a different experience than someone who watched the whole way through.
There were some excellent references thrown our way. Something fairly obvious but certainly necessary was looking further into the idea of semiotics so we’ve got a book titled ‘This Means This, This Means That: A User's Guide to Semiotics’ which we will read through. We were then recommended ‘This Is a Generic Brand Video’ which is made entirely from stock images from Dissolve. It’s a very tight film, if not a little cheesy but it certainly makes the point about objects and imagery being blank slates and people applying meaning to them based on their own agenda or thought process.
The artist Mark Lewis was also mentioned. He’s someone we’ve been a fan of since Venice Biennale in 2009 and then had our love rekindled at a talk he gave a couple of years ago. Some truly genius ways of thinking about film and the methods by which it’s constructed and how that informs a certain narrative. We’ve since gone back and watched a couple of interviews with him and he says some truly poetic and beautiful things about the moving image such as the fact that we’ve had the cinematic experience since the beginning of time, the first time a human looked into a pond and saw their reflection, they were watching a movie. said exactly the thing we were considering when having huge gaps if silence in our video; the lack of sound abstracts the visual experience, it removes its fullness and asks us to imagine the missing elements through the visual. The link below is one of favorites of his (although it's not silent) watch from 9:18.
Laura Mulvey’s text ‘Death 24X A Second’ was also brought up but we’re yet to read it since we’re getting ready for the open studios but will make sure we do before since it sounds like the perfect book when considering narrative and the spectator. Michael Craig Martin’s 1973 piece ‘An Oak Tree’ was briefly spoke about in reference to attaching meaning to objects and words.
Then we went onto sound and how that can be a big influencer of narrative. David Toop’s book Sinister Resonance sounds excellent and is now also on the ‘to read’ list. It discusses the history of listening and how sound often functions as a metaphor for mystical revelation, forbidden desires, formlessness, the unknown, and the unconscious.
Kerry Tribe is an artist who we’ve heard of before but never really investigated and since doing so have been truly blown away. Her piece ‘The Audition Tapes’ is so similar to a work we’ve been thinking about for a while. It basically documents the casting call for a project advertised in an acting magazine as "an experimental documentary on family history and memory." The monologues and dialogues the actors deliver were developed from transcribed interviews with members of Tribe's immediate family. Each of the fifteen actors included in the tape speaks as one of four real characters. But as one watches, the stories they narrate begin to fragment, repeat themselves and contradict. Different accounts of the same events emerge and actors project their own desires and expectations onto the characters they portray.
We love the aesthetic of audition tapes and spend quite a lot of time watching them on YouTube. This is because it’s a purely dialogical moment; there’s no set, no costume and not really any other actors. It’s the most difficult moment for an actor because they have nothing to support them, just words on a page. A favourite audition clip is Aaron Paul from Breaking Bad trying out for the part of Jesse and half way through he breaks character due to forgetting a line and gets reminded of it by someone off screen. In that moment you realise you haven’t been watching the ‘proper’ performance and even though the illusion was so minimal in the first place, it’s broken right in front of you.
Attended a talk/in
conversation with Andy and Peter Holden about their Art Angel commission,
Natural Selection which was an absolute pleasure. They’re both just as
intelligent and charismatic as you would expect and a particularly exciting feature
was how much stage time was given to Peter. For no other reason that it felt
important to the work to be able to learn about his connection (or lack of) to
the art world. Andy was then his way in/guide to learning about this part of
the world even though he’s obviously a clever and by our assumption liberal
person. This then relates back to their common interest in birds and how Peter
was the instigator of that and now Andy has done the same thing with art. Learning
about their first work together was also beneficial; Andy invited him to come
and give the same lecture he had seen him do previously. This for him was a
readymade – taking something that previously existed from one place and
refreshing the context.
The new film is going
well! After getting quite far through it we weren’t sure what it was doing. Initially
we wanted to make people think more about the world around them and how
everything is constructed but in order to do that we need something to bounce
the examples off of. Some sort of juxtaposition. This will probably come in the
form of a second screen, intentionally detached from the other one as opposed
to just having a projector with two sets of imagery on it. At the moment, we’re
considering having just everyday objects on there – sofa, fridge, backpack etc.
The images from the Ikea or Argos catalogue are perfect because they’re just
images in white space, no context at all.
The lack of context/surrounding is
important in order for other people to bring their own context to them. Another
method would be to only use a word which would then be an entirely dematerialised
object and only becomes an object in the mind of the viewer. It then becomes
about value, choice and judgement; everything is a prop, the only reason you
think they’re important in the films is because someone’s decided they are,
same with art. It’s about giving something value through choice and consequently
applying meaning to that thing. What occurs in a gallery a handful of times a
year happens every day out in the world, which is one of the reasons are is
important, it helps you stop and look at it all.
Managed to finally visit the new commission in the turbine hall at Tate Modern (finally because it’s been up for a while as opposed to because we’ve been anxious to see it). There’s been plenty of negative reviews so our feelings towards it were always going to be skewed. However, it actually felt OK. Not brilliant by any means but fun none the less. This was aided by the swings being for 3 people as opposed to just the one by hindered by the show’s half hearted “production” section at the far end of the hall. This aspect felt unnecessarily explain-y for something that is really just a bit of fun and shouldn’t try to apologise for being so.
Also managed to just catch the show at White Cube before it finished. First up was Ann Veronica Janssens, a name some may recognise from her show at the wellcome collection last year featuring in Facebook profile pictures everywhere, the room full of coloured mist. Her work is quite material based for us but absolutely beautiful objects which are impossible not to admire. However, describing her works as material based is slightly strange since in some ways they’re fairly “non-material” or ephemeral due to being constructed out of light or mist. When we say the word material it’s more focused around the aesthetic/desired look. These are truly what people are talking about when they describe art that needs to be experienced in person.
Next there was Cerith Wyn Evans doing his thing with neon lights. It was actually a very appropriate space for it; long and thin. But even though the work fitted perfectly into the room it didn’t make it much more exciting than previous iterations.
Finally, we had Damián Ortega whose press release began with a quote from him which perfectly sums up the way we feel about most art-making. He speaks about art being an “un-learning process”, which we take to mean that it’s linked to notions of deconstruction and general investigation into “truth” or things taken for granted. In addition to that, the show was very well put together. It was a proper body of work that really related to each other without being the same work or the same idea, it truly flowed. This ties in to how he thinks about art and science – both are exploratory and creative in their own right and take you on a journey of discovery. The linking of art and science is also something that is visible in the work produced as well as the method of producing. There are these subtle references to the solar system and geometry throughout the show, very strong indeed.
There’s another podcast up on Artists and Friends which is the exclusive podcast we recorded with isthisit? founder Bob Bicknell-Knight for the second issue of the isthisit? magazine where we discuss the themes of the magazine such as memes and appropriation on the internet. Listen in >>>here<<< and you can pick up a PDF of the second issue below >>>here<<< or pre-order the third issue >>>here<<.
With our own practice we’ve recently been researching more into ideas of implied narratives and the potential beginnings of where it might have come from. This continues on from the exhibition in Manchester, An Exchange of Sorts, which as we may have already mentioned is based around emerging artist’s relationship to money, and making money with their practice. Our work is several subtle contributions to an overall narrative. The narrative being that of an artist (us) trying to make themselves 'sellable' but failing. The works themselves will come in the form of a postcard rack full of postcards of our previous works, a monitor which has a Sid and Jim advert/explainer video of our artistic practice that's made by someone on the website fiverr, an abandoned signing table of signed photos of the Sid and Jim stock image with a roll out ad board with the same image on it and then a crumpled up (but still visible) artist cv on the ground. These are then distributed throughout the space as opposed to being in one place; similar to a trail of breadcrumbs. The general thinking is that it's a variety of failed attempt to be successful/noticed; making postcards which haven't sold, a film which is supposed to act as a promotional tool but just seems impersonal and weird, a sort of fan meet up where no one showed and a cv that never got a the owner a job which has consequently been discarded. It opens tomorrow so will post images when we get them!
We’re also starting on a new film with a similar link to implied narratives. It’s going to be about film props and how they’re used, the script is just about done but we need to decide on what films to use and when since it’s going to be made up of many shorts clips/examples from other films with a voiceover.
As we hoped we have managed to finalise all the works for An Exchange of Sorts which is exciting! Only aspect yet to be completed is the explainer video which is in the very final stages of the production, just requires the voice over to be added but the script and animation are looking superb. It’s exactly the sort of distant, impersonal thing we desired, kind of capturing what we do but at the same time being very vague and detached. The postcards have been ordered too, given them a little white, transparent band across the top providing details of the work, makes them feel slightly dated which goes with the rest of the ‘missing the point’ narrative. Really looking forward to seeing it all up in the space.
Finally de-installed Pre-sliced Orange Segments and decided to let Light Eye Mind keep the bench. Unfortunately they weren’t in a position to pay for it and what’re we going to do with all the wood? It’s not of an appropriate size to re-purpose and if we ever do want to we’re pretty sure they wouldn’t mind us taking it. It also feels nice to have an almost signature of our time there too – people might ask what the bench is about and there’s a story there, even if it’s not a hugely entertaining one!
We also began the our ProjectPlatform which is a part of KoProjects, a really great organisation founded by Jeff Ko. ProjectPlatform is basically an ongoing project that showcases the practice of artists, cultural producers, organisations and projects from around the world so we’re super excited to be a part of it! At the moment it’s been Jeff sending us interview style questions about our practice both artistically and curatorially which is always a fun challenge; being asked to define the actions you take and realising that the things you do are actually quite thought out but sometimes the thinking has happened much before the final conception.
Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir were passing through London so it would have been difficult not to take the opportunity to see them do their thing! Obviously it’s slightly different seeing them perform on a stage that actually out on the street protesting on their own special way but it continues to remind us of all the hilarious actions they’ve made. A favourite being that he’s banned from every Starbucks in the world after a series of protests against its “fake Bohemia” in which he tried to “exorcise” the demon of cookie-cutter capitalism from its stores. An excellent premise and executed superbly.
There’s also a new podcast out on Artists and Friends which you can either listen to on your podcast app on your mobile device or click >>>here<<< and you’ll find your way to the soundcloud link. It’s about the Artangel commission by Andy and Peter Holden, Natural Selection. We’re also going to be releasing the exclusive material we recorded as a part of the second issue of the isthisit? magazine so watch out for that!
Today was the install of the Mutants exhibition on the new space in Camden. The footprints are down and they look great! It feels like a lovely method of pulling all the works together in a similar manner to the bench at Light Eye Mind. In terms of a title we’ve gone for ‘It’s a moving object’. We were thinking about what someone might say if they were describing an artwork as a crime scene; so it's kind of ominous in its non-descriptive-ness.
Frustrated that we allowed the hand in for our dissertation draft to dictate so much, need to keep that in check next time. But moaning aside we’ve still been exposing ourselves to lots of new stuff and doing some new things but haven’t given the time to reflect on it so here goes.
We attended a great talk by Philipp Ekardt, a research fellow specialising in theories of image-circulation. He began his talk by discussing how fine art and fashion practice find themselves within digital ecology, showing us the film ‘Watermarked’ by the New York based collective DIS. They were hired by Kenzo to revamp the brand and this is what they produced. It was highly connected to their stock images; creating this aesthetic of emptiness/vacuity. Very similar in fact to how a catalogue is constructed. It’s slightly different to an advert, it’s highly generic because of the desire to be neutral.
He went on to discuss the unspecified nature of a stock image. They’re images which are created with a double quality; they respond to a need to fill a whole, be that in a film or a website but can’t distract too much attention so need not to be noticed. Invisibly filling a gap. The notion of the watermark is also something that was brought up (hardtop avoid when dealing with stock images). It’s a fairly new idea due to it being an attempt to hold onto something under digital conditions but when that is embraced and to a certain extent fetishised, it reverses the intention. This whole topic is something which obviously fascinates us due to our minor obsession with stock images (if you’re unaware of this visit our website www.sidandjim.com and you’ll find out what we mean).
There was then another highly interesting talk about blockchain technology with a great panel of including Hito Steyerl and Julian Oliver. They went over a huge number of topics like whether Art needs its own blockchain and can blockchain technologies help create and retain value for artists and arts organisations? They also discussed whether or not blockchains are transforming all other industries and supply chains, and if they are, how will it affect the arts? If you would like to watch the full talk the live stream is available below.
Last week also marked the end of this years ‘Into the Wild’ programme meaning there was an exhibition at Chisenhale studios. ‘Into the Wild’ is a free, year-long professional development programme for recent BA graduate artists, led by artists at Chisenhale Studios – a really great opportunity/thing to exist. Exhibition was fun, especially a work by Oliver Durcan titled ‘The Painter and Their Desktop’ which was exactly that; a painting depicting the classic Mac desktop background of a mountain range.
In other news our pavilion we curated for the wrong is open today!! Head over to the15cmdments.com to check out all the amazing artists, all the pavilions will be opening up today too so if you want to see those too then go to the wrong website. www.thewrong.org
We’re also producing a new work for a show in London titled Mutants which opens next Monday. It’s going to be a series of snowy footprints that wonder around the space, as if someone has walked in from the snow and taken a look round the exhibition. While deciding on the work we were thinking about the idea of horror films as ‘Mutants’ was the title of the show. We agreed that the scariest aspect of them is usually not being able to see the monster but merely witnessing its existence. As we’re noted previously in our last blog post, William K. Everson said it best – “Nothing that the camera can show can possibly be as horrible as what the mind can imagine”. This also has obvious nods to Yves Klien and Ignasi Aballí with regards to mark making and the body.
The rest of this week is just getting ready for the show in Manchester, An Exchange of Sorts. Hopefully we’ll be back in the next couple days with an update…
