I have chosen to make a film for a fine art gallery setting, one that builds on my current practice as an artist. As a painter and digital artist, i’m drawn to the similarities in image construction between art and painting, and films potential for abstraction over a time based medium, and so in my initial research i came across stills from a piece by Cory Arcangel entitled ‘Video Painting’ (2008)
The piece is a two hour long improvisation using various image generation technology, notably final cut, an amiga toaster, vidicon cameras, etc. It was then recorded onto a VHS tape, giving it a distinctly Lo Fi feel, complementary to the more complex visuals produced via a multitude of methods. It is essentially a series of compositions, a painting morphing over time, entirely abstract and devoid of narrative. But unfortunately the video isn’t available to view, the only copy held by the smithsonian american art museum, so when looking for similar works, i found Toshio Matsumoto.
Matsumoto has produced various feature films but two of his experimental shorts, Relation , and in particular, Shift, caught my interest. Produced in 1982 and utilizing cutting edge technology at the time, Shift deconstructs a building into geometric architectural form producing a series of puzzle like graphics that reduce the residential building to an off-kilter array of horizontal blocks shifting to the accompaniment of collaborator Yasuke Inagaki’s electronic drones, the result a somewhat eerie and somber film, it’s deliberate destruction of symmetry, cool toned greys and blues combined with occasional graphics, the ambient drones, and its acknowledgement of the medium (the production is clear, the technological aspects of the film are not hidden we are confronted with what is clearly manipulated footage) producing a dreamlike, hypnotic experience.