Bleatings from the Sheep

Vague and Practically Incoherent Thoughts on Video Art

Well, seeing as how it’s been quite some time since I’ve blogged, I figured I should write something. That and I need another excuse to procrastinate on my other homework...hehe.

So, Tuesday’s class was about video art I think. To be honest, I still think it’s a little weird. I can appreciate it for what it is, or at least try to, but I am by no means crazy about it. Which makes some sense I suppose, considering I’m more interested in using DMA for the purposes of storytelling rather than those of purely art. I’d actually rather be called a storyteller than an artist; for some reason, I’ve always hesitated to use the term “artist.” Somewhere along the way the word developed some weird negative connotation in my mind and I can’t figure out why...But I digress. As usual.



I did think that the piece by Bill Viola was interesting, though. It creeped me out a little at first, because there was just that body underwater...but then when it started rising out of the water, the creepiness wore off. Initially it just left me with confusion afterwards and a sense of wanting to know what that was supposed to all be about...but as it was discussed in class, I started to appreciate it more. Is it a bad sign that I have to have art explained to me? Probably. But oh well. At any rate, my impression of it now is higher than it was at first, so I guess it all works out.

Unfortunately, my opinion of the others doesn’t go much past “weird.” The first one we watched—with the open water, the foot (which later turned out to be the woman in the dress), the oil slick, and the creepy voice—that one made me feel a little uneasy. I think that was the point of it to some extent though, so, I don’t know...does that make it a success? I doubt it’ll be on my mind much, and the temporary sense of uneasiness that I got from it doesn’t seem altogether significant in itself. Yet seeing as how I’m not quite sure I understand what video art is meant to accomplish in the first place, I’m in no place to judge whether or not it was good or not.

The second one we watched, about the bird constantly slipping off the rail, was a little...well...boring, for me. I guess that maybe it just didn’t appeal to me though. Some art will reach some people more effectively than others, right? So maybe this “style” just didn’t appeal to me? Also, the piece by William Kentridge was...decent. I definitely appreciate it more now at the end of the semester than I did at the beginning, so there’s been some change there. And the last piece, the really long one...it was an interesting concept, but after a little while, I just started to daze out and not really pay attention to what was going on with it. It actually had more of a hypnotic effect for me than anything else. I was half-expecting someone to whisper in my ear, “You are getting sleepy...VERY sleepy...”

So yeah. For this being a topic I really had no interest in, I still ended up writing over 500 words on it. How does that happen? Hmm.

posted by Caitlynn @ 5:49 PM