[-empyre-] Artwork #7: Kerry Downey -

[Murat Nemet-Nejat]

Hi Daniel,

Comparing it to the airplane sequence in "The Ticket That Exploded", I
dislike Kerry Downey's piece, even for the sake of the issues we are
discussing here, intensely. In the airplane scene, events relate to each
other with no fancy tricks, just a pan of the camera or I think unobtrusive
cuts. In this piece the relationship is achieved through the digital
machine. In the terms of our discussion, I would say it reeks of
manipulation. What this video communicates to me is not a message of
liberation through contact with reality and the body ("..("the somatic ways
feminist and queer histories move through bodies.) ; but rather the
contrary, that digitally programmed robot, can replicate human movement and
behavior: the very anti-thesis of what the video claims to achieve. I find
the work "arty" in the worst sense of the word -- a "wrong" direction.

Daniel, I hope you don't mind my being direct. Otherwise, the discussions
end up being echo chambers.

Ciao,
Murat



On Sat, Jul 21, 2018 at 10:22 AM, Daniel Lichtman <danielp73 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
> -“body dubbing” as I heard in the video. a good starting point for
> thinking about this work
>
> -artist imitates Angela’s body movements in the form of a silhouette (via
> overhead projector according to description). relation/translation of body
> movement in for form of a drawing with water and ink. artist also repeats
> character’s voice and dogs movements
>
> -i look back and forth between the two parts of the video, creating some
> visual/shapes-based/ fluid connection between the ink/water and Angela
> talking.
>
> -Angela makes fishing flies that link her to the body-form of insect and
> the tastes of fish in the river. she makes these connections through
> working with her hands. Artist makes connections to Angela through work
> with their hands, body
>
> -love Angela’s cursing. Her reflections are not detached intellect; they
> are emotional and through the various bodies she interacts with
>
> -Angela seeks “responsive state.” Such a state sounds lovely.
>
> -seems important that Artist’s imitation is in silhouette form. Abstracts
> the relationship between artist and Angela. though artist mimics Angela’s
> movements fairly exactly, the silhouette creates space for inhabiting this
> relationship in an open-ended (full of potential instead of precisely
> metaphorical, closed-down) way.
>
> -love imitation of dog. use of dogs fur. dog, and also the river and
> forest—seem like a substrate or glue for holding the work together.
>
> -“they should be peeing” it’s obvious isn’t it
>
> -whisper at the beginning makes me feel I’m privy to a secret—the work
> will uncover secret dimensions of their relationship.
>
> -also wonder how this is installed—is this documentation of a performance?
> or a video? was there a live audience for Kerry’s actions? Doesn’t look
> like it. When Kerry’s talking, looks like they’re talking directly to me,
> the viewer of the video. The setup of the video puts the viewer in close
> quarters with the various bodies, voices, movements, skills, histories,
> actions, etc etc presented in the work.
>
> On Sat, Jul 14, 2018 at 10:29 PM Daniel Lichtman <danielp73 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Kerry Downey
>> Fishing With Angela
>>
>> Link to video and documentation: http://kerrydowney.com/videos--/
>> fishing-with-angela/1
>>
>> Kerry Downey (b.1979, Ft. Lauderdale) is a multidisciplinary artist whose
>> work draws relationships between states of embodiment and forms of power.
>> Downey has recently had a solo show at CAVE in Detroit, MI and a two-person
>> show at Knockdown Center in Maspeth, NY. They have also exhibited at the
>> Queens Museum, Flushing, NY; the Hessel Museum at Bard College, Annandale,
>> NY; the Drawing Center, New York, NY; Franklin Street Works, Stamford, CT;
>> The Alice, Seattle, WA; and at the Paris International with Taylor Macklin
>> of Zurich. In 2015, Downey was awarded the Joan Mitchell Foundation
>> Emerging Artist Grant.  Artist-in-residencies and Fellowships include
>> Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Triangle Arts Association,
>> SHIFT at the EFA Project Space, the Drawing Center’s Open Sessions, Real
>> Time and Space in Oakland, CA, the Vermont Studio Center, and the
>> Queer/Art/Mentorship Program. Their work has been in Artforum, the Brooklyn
>> Rail, and the Washington Post. They hold a BA from Bard College and an MFA
>> from Hunter College.
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre at lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au
> http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au/pipermail/empyre/attachments/20180721/3df388ef/attachment.html>