Analysing and evaluating a piece of text from:
Cinema Cinema Contemporary Art and the Cinematic Experience Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum Eindhoven.
The piece of text that I have decided to analyse from this book is the introduction written by Jaap Guldemond and Marente Bloemheuuel. I have chosen to analyse and evaluate the introduction as it explains briefly the ideas, purpose and intention behind the Cinema Cinema exhibition and artworks created by 11 artists from Finland, France, Scotland, Denmark, England, Canada and the United States.
Cinema Cinema was an exhibition of contemporary artworks created by artists that incorporate the aspects of the cinema experience and are interested in combining various storytelling techniques. The artists work explores the tension between fiction and reality and studies the roles that cinema plays in the perception and reconstruction of both historical and current events.
The writers examine the various ways in which artists refer to famous films, make use of certain cinematic techniques and reflect on an already developed language.
The introduction describes a broad overview of work that has been created by 11 artists given the same brief: Cinema Cinema and the Cinema Experience. All artists have interpreted this open theme in very different styles and have incorporated a variety of famous films or cinematic techniques to express their own personal interest in cinema and the experience of cinema.
The exhibition is not concerned with the medium of film in the general sense, but focuses specifically on how artists make use of cinematic experience to formulate their ideas. The artists can distinguish two cinematic approaches: 1. Artists who make frequent use of existing material (films) by analysing the structure and dissecting the language in order to interpret this through artwork. 2. Artists that employ cinematographic techniques, such as casting, lighting, mise-en-scène, camera work, editing and narrative structures. They do not use these methods to make a film in the normal way, however, but instead apply them to other media such as photography and installations. They experiment with combinations of multiple projection screens, spatial objects, sound, slide shows, props and set-like performances.
I have found the critical writing on this exhibition within this book a useful source of inspiration because it explores the notions of the viewer as the spectator and the cinema experience as a personal possession to be taken away in the form of memories and nostalgia.
I have been influenced by many of the contemporary artists in the Cinema Cinema exhibition because of the way in which they analyse the cinema experience and the methodology and methods that are employed to create practical work that is both exciting and engaging to an audience. This text has enabled me to look more in depth at my reasoning for exploring popular horror films and how to communicate my own ideas and questions through moving image, therefore I feel I have validated and developed my practice and most importantly began to investigate further the successful role of engaging an audience.
One of the 11 artists that exhibited work in the Cinema Cinema and the Cinema Experience exhibition was video installation artist Douglas Gordon.Douglas Gordon 24 hour Psycho
