<div dir="ltr"><div>-edit, music, sound effects tell me to read this as a film, and tell me to try to understand the narrative of this work, whatever that may be and however it works.</div><div>-unfocused image of older woman in beginning strongly reminds me of the extremely amazing work of Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel, Commensal, which I saw at Documenta 14. It documents a very slow, often silent, conversation between a man and his brother who murdered a fellow student and then ate that person. It is shot fixed focus—only in focus whens subjects happen to be the right distance from the camera lens. </div><div>-after the opening sequence of ‘mum’s last words’: is the rest of the video her dying dream? “complete immersion in its [the landscape’s] materiality”—is that what’s happening to her?. The sound of the soda can opening cues the next scene—“I turned every leaf into an eye”</div><div>-of course the question: who is “I”? And where’s this forest? Who’s the man narrating “come into the world my child”? How does his accent prompt the viewer to interpret his message?</div><div>-flash of green—then green screen editing, multiplying the body moving through the forest, which has become ‘camouflage’, for forest, perhaps, rather than ‘just’ forest. </div><div>-relieved by the closeup shot of camo being applied to the face and ear—a body feel available for immediate relation (even though it isn’t; as if HD video were not a mediating medium) vs. filmic cutting of scenes in the rest</div><div>-gorilla (ape?) on the wire—interesting to put found video into this work (unless artist had big budget and access to animals/trainers). first time I watched this scene choked me up. felt bad for the ape. this scene has it all—nature vs. human. human infrastructure and power on view; the will of nature on view. </div><div>-decent into the ear, and subsequent footage feels like entering a dream of media-consciousness (maybe drug induced). is this where human and nature meet? self and other? human and animal? material and immaterial?</div><div>-soldier in grass seems to be the protagonist, if the protagonist is not the video editor.</div><div>-i was wondering if credits would say music or sound—they say sound.</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr">On Sat, Jul 21, 2018 at 7:13 AM Daniel Lichtman <<a href="mailto:danielp73@gmail.com">danielp73@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr">Beny Wagner<br>We're All Here<br><br>Video Link: <a href="http://impakt.nl/channel/videos/beny-wagner-were-all-here-united-statesthe-netherlands-2016-1202-mins/" target="_blank">http://impakt.nl/channel/videos/beny-wagner-were-all-here-united-statesthe-netherlands-2016-1202-mins/</a><br><br>Beny Wagner is an artist and writer based in Berlin. Working in moving image, text, installation and lectures, he constructs non-linear narratives which investigate ecological, linguistic, and technological modes of mediation and how these give shape to the parameters of consciousness and perception.</div>
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