Peering through the cut out eyes of a portrait, usually by the villain, spying on unsuspecting innocents. I've seen it so many times, in film after film. Off the top of my head, the first example I could think of was from "Carry on Screaming" 1966. In terms of the display/object, to see the characters left in a room, examinig objects, before coming upon the large painting of a nude woman, and while waiting on their unmet hosts, speculating that it represented their hostess (while ignoring that the painted figure has four arms). Not only does the painting possibly represent the lady of the house, it actually has her eyes peering at them. Not realising this, they are still left with the uncanny sensation that this portrait is more "real" than a painting should be.
Portraits that seem to look back are a cliche in films and television plots. "Portrait Painting Peephole"
The usually un-seeing eyes of the portrait, are brought alive. Are not all artworks, especially those that incorporate representions of eyes, the enablers of sight, allowing the oberver to view while being unseen ? . .
Sunday 12 January 2014
"Ancient Britons" by William Blake 1809.
"The 1809 exhibition, held in Golden Square, Soho, proved a turning point in the artist's career. Embittered by its appalling reception, he withdrew even more from the art world into solitary eccentricity."
It took place upstairs of the premises of the family hosiery business in Golden Square, London.
The exhibition displayed 16 works. Only 11 survive. One of the missing works is the huge, by Blake's standards "The Ancient Britons" which was three metres by four metres. It has been missing since the 1860's.
As well as contextualing the 10 works from the orignal show, with surviving work by contemporary artists. it was chosen by the Tate torepresent the missing five works with blanks spaces.
Seen in the picture below, from the website of Studio Emmi, who designed the show, the same area as the dimensions of "The Ancient Britons" was marked out by white against the cream/grey walls of the gallery.
“The eyes. They seem to be alive.”
Carry On Screaming by crazedigitalmovies
“Carry
On Screaming.” 1966
Cast.
Bernard Bresslaw - Socket Harry H. Corbett – Detective Sargeant Sidney Bung |
||
Jim Dale – Albert Potter
Peter Butterworth – Detective Constable
Slobotham
Fenella Fielding - Valerie Watt
Scene- Two policeman, accompanied by the boyfriend of a missing girl, call on the mysterious house by the common where the girl disappeared. Sockett – “This way sir”
[Sockett
opens the door.]
Sockett
– “If you wait in here, I’ll go and talk to the master.
Detective Sargeant Sidney Bung – “Er. I thought you said he was
dead ?
Sockett – “So he is.”
Detective Sargeant Sidney Bung – “That should be a conversation
worth hearing.”
 Albert Potter – “How about this” 
Detective Sargeant Sidney Bung – “That must be the
mistress of the house.
Petere Butterworth - “Sargeant. Notice
anything unusual about that woman ?”
|
Detective Sargeant Sidney Bung – “No. What ?”
Detective Constable
Slobotham – “The eyes. They seem to be alive.”
Valerie Watt has been spying through holes cut through the eyes of the painting. Close to being discovered, she swings back the cover.
She then closes two panels conceling the back of the painting.
Valerie Watt has been spying through holes cut through the eyes of the painting. Close to being discovered, she swings back the cover.
She then closes two panels conceling the back of the painting.
[Sockett
knocks on the door]
Valerie
Watts – “Come”
Sockett
– “I’m sorry to disturb you miss, but some gentlemen are here.”
Valerie
Watts – “Yes I was looking at them Sockett. What do they want ?”
Wednesday 1 January 2014
Men who live in glass houses . . .
Okay, so I'm reading "The Artist's Body" Phaidon 2000 - 2012 . . .
Performance is, like dematerialisation, perhaps not the way to avoid filling up studio space with crap . . .
Seems I am alone in being aware that the other side of the object/display equation is Display display display . . .
There is nothing more directly experienced by the artist than the artists body, though I've been in some studios that were so freezing it had to be ignored, or to exhibitions that made me more aware of my empty stomach and tired feet.
But, any where you go to "see", whether your bookshelf, the gallery, online, wherever, there is always the site of display. It's pre-existence is a given. Especially if you're an art serf like myself, where it's only ever the public display of stuff . . . "Here we are again, and what's on show today ?"
Was thinking today of my idea to create a scaled down gallery. As I always have to work outside, and it's still pouring with rain everyday, I'm slowly clearing the garden of things that have been destroyed by the elements, and the natural processes of decay (damn you rotting leaves), I realised, if I wasn't going to be wasting my time, I'd have to create a rooom around it (more material I'd have to discard after.)
So that would be a frame - around a frame !
Like the frames on unexposed film, with pre-cut sprockets, the places of display pre-exist the work. If not literally, then certainly by form.
In a book full of bodies, the image I was most intrigued by was of Skip Arnold.
Thus . . (obviously scanned from the same book . . .)
On Display, 1993
OK, Linz, Austria
and then . . .
On Display, 1995
Burnett Miller Gallery, Santa Monica
Damn, I thought, that's a pretty nifty acrylic box, I wonder what else you could put in that ? . . .
A quote - "It's okay for gays, lesbians and women to display their bodies but not straight men. Straight men are accused of egocentrism, exhibitionism and exploitation. What I am doing is not exposure."
"In conversation with J. S. M. Willette' 1992.
It's hard to work out a chronology for this artist.
This is 1987 for example . . .
Closet Corner 1987.
And it's not always about nudity . . .
"Shoot Me
, September 8, 1990 - performance, all day duration.
"An all day activity in which I walked through and visited most of the major Los Angeles areas (South Central, Echo Park, Venice, Downtown) to see if anyone would shoot me. Worn on 3 separate days in September."
Via
Back to display . . . which can happen anywhere, but always in particular frames . . .
Shower 1997
Where Skip took a shower in the Spencer Brownstone Gallery for four days.
Via
Of course I'm ignoring, nudity, endangering oneself, etc. Apparently the four day shower produced "large red marks"
Looking for a chronology - His website seems untouched since 2007 - but here's a video uploaded on February 14th 2013.
"This video is unlisted. Be considerate and think twice before sharing"
Though there's also a parallel Skip . .
Performance is, like dematerialisation, perhaps not the way to avoid filling up studio space with crap . . .
Seems I am alone in being aware that the other side of the object/display equation is Display display display . . .
There is nothing more directly experienced by the artist than the artists body, though I've been in some studios that were so freezing it had to be ignored, or to exhibitions that made me more aware of my empty stomach and tired feet.
But, any where you go to "see", whether your bookshelf, the gallery, online, wherever, there is always the site of display. It's pre-existence is a given. Especially if you're an art serf like myself, where it's only ever the public display of stuff . . . "Here we are again, and what's on show today ?"
Was thinking today of my idea to create a scaled down gallery. As I always have to work outside, and it's still pouring with rain everyday, I'm slowly clearing the garden of things that have been destroyed by the elements, and the natural processes of decay (damn you rotting leaves), I realised, if I wasn't going to be wasting my time, I'd have to create a rooom around it (more material I'd have to discard after.)
So that would be a frame - around a frame !
Like the frames on unexposed film, with pre-cut sprockets, the places of display pre-exist the work. If not literally, then certainly by form.
In a book full of bodies, the image I was most intrigued by was of Skip Arnold.
Thus . . (obviously scanned from the same book . . .)
OK, Linz, Austria
and then . . .
Burnett Miller Gallery, Santa Monica
Damn, I thought, that's a pretty nifty acrylic box, I wonder what else you could put in that ? . . .
A quote - "It's okay for gays, lesbians and women to display their bodies but not straight men. Straight men are accused of egocentrism, exhibitionism and exploitation. What I am doing is not exposure."
"In conversation with J. S. M. Willette' 1992.
It's hard to work out a chronology for this artist.
This is 1987 for example . . .
Closet Corner 1987.
And it's not always about nudity . . .
"Shoot Me
, September 8, 1990 - performance, all day duration.
"An all day activity in which I walked through and visited most of the major Los Angeles areas (South Central, Echo Park, Venice, Downtown) to see if anyone would shoot me. Worn on 3 separate days in September."
Via
Back to display . . . which can happen anywhere, but always in particular frames . . .
Where Skip took a shower in the Spencer Brownstone Gallery for four days.
Via
Of course I'm ignoring, nudity, endangering oneself, etc. Apparently the four day shower produced "large red marks"
Looking for a chronology - His website seems untouched since 2007 - but here's a video uploaded on February 14th 2013.
"This video is unlisted. Be considerate and think twice before sharing"
Though there's also a parallel Skip . .
Tuesday 3 December 2013
hermeneutics . . .
Google empty shop windows . . . .
pick favourite image . . .
go to page read caption . . .
bone marrows chills
. . . "Sue Murrin-Bailey, a senior lecturer at the Uni's Business School, thinks they'd make a brilliant 'show case' for students to bring their work to a much wider audience - and make a real difference to the drab town centre."
pick favourite image . . .
go to page read caption . . .
bone marrows chills
. . . "Sue Murrin-Bailey, a senior lecturer at the Uni's Business School, thinks they'd make a brilliant 'show case' for students to bring their work to a much wider audience - and make a real difference to the drab town centre."
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