43(two) Four Film Series with Music
Day 8 #DeemingDreaming30Years
43(two) was my first ‘epic’ that is durational work, the process and product (which are closely intertwined) happened over 5 years. (2003-2007)
A 4 film series with music the piece explores that ‘in between space’ between live performance and filmed creation. Part spectacle, part ritual the process began with strong visual ideas I needed to exorcise and then grew from there. I had been reading a lot of the work of filmmakers Maya Deren and Alejandro Jodorowsky which definitely fed into the process. Both had a theatrical sensibility, and worked in live environments.
The films themselves were made in #Dublin and #Glasgow with Hannaywood Studios over a three year period (two on film, two with the then emergent HD digital cameras).
In the context of sharing the finished film product I wanted to further explore that immersive experience bringing past, present and future together (in a way) so in the subsequent gallery exhibitions I organised I was conscious how to create a space which adds another layer to the already existing process. We used mirrors and light to try and manifest this.
As with the Nike commercial or even the work in North Philadelphia with kids I was curious how better to make work that engaged with people in a more ‘total’ way. Keeping in mind this was before youtube really took of or live streaming etc. Also thinking in terms of Wagner's concept of "Gesamtkunstwerk" which translates roughly as 'a total work of art' - he found it in opera I thought film was another layer.
Here are the program notes:
43(two) is meant to be projected site specific in post-industrial areas, the forgotten ‘in-between’ spaces where people and history hover precariously. Each on a separate time code (including the music), they are meant to present a unique experience for the viewer who brings with them their own sense of time and space. Equally the creation of the films balances the world of film art and performance film. They are imperfect in that way therefore allowing you that much closer to the artist and experience, the craft of the film which is the ‘in-between’ space of the film itself.
I love this idea of the 'in between spaces' even within the context of how it is filmed, exploring that between live and recorded, bringing to the attention the falseness and imperfection of it all and therefore giving more a sense of the process and the viewer's role within that. I wanted these films to exist somewhere in that psychic/physical space. We imagine we are engaging directly with the experience, the image on the screen rather than purely framing it. ‘Framing’ it imposes a distance; interaction, curiosity, and reverence for the moment create an experience linking viewer to image- if we are voyeurs, then we are so within the screen, we create a connection to this ‘other world’.
The waking becomes the sleeping and the sleeping becomes the waking.
43(two) began as a process of imagination, I had these visual ideas in my head I needed to exorcise as a starting point and they grew from there. To a certain extent whilst creating them and most definitely since that time I have been able to present them in a theoretical construct. Films which explore sense of self and place, films which explore female identity, films which have a spiritual drive (being driven by spirit in the first place)…and yet this definition is constantly evolving and that is extraordinary as well.
In that way there are several ideas to explore – the content of the films and context in which they are presented. Presenting platforms for exploration from a metaphoric sense (what is presented on screen), actual sense (where they are presented) and a spiritual sense (how they are created in the first place).
* “In-between spaces” refers to those ‘waiting’ areas, not quite one thing, not quite another and yet often serve as a point for transformation. I was first introduced to the concept by an Irish woman who has ready communication with ghosts (or so she said), who were waiting stuck in between this world and the next (heaven?) with no means of living in either. Architecture also uses the term to signify that space between doors and rooms, hallways, alley ways etc… passing places. (In hindsight I think much of my work is this ‘in between’ - neither one nor the other but helping something to pass through…..