Lecture- 'Post-war Avant-Grade and Moving Image: 'Conceptualism'

Notes from Lecture:

Katharine Hepburn’s  ‘Adam’s Rib’  (1949)

‘Hollywood’

‘Rom-com’, Slapstick

Clever/comedic scripts, good acting.

Beginning, Middle, End

Illusion of reality- War, post-war trauma

Form of ‘Escapism’

Andy Warhol:  ‘Screen Test’  ‘Ready Made’

Still position- Shyness, Paranoia, being watched

Edie Sedgwick

Andy Warhol: ‘Empire State Building’

Still position: Rain droplets appear over time, light changes.

Narrative-less, looking at film rather than narrative

No edits, no actors/actresses, real life.

‘Underground’ work: Bruce Nauman’s ‘Walking in an Exaggerated Manner around the Perimeter of a Square) 1967-68

Interested in what you can do with film, rather than using techniques.

A ‘Niche’ that appeals to a certain audience.

Slow-paced

Narrative-less

What is he trying to say? Meaningless?

Richard Serra: ‘Hand Catching lead’

‘Pointless human action’- Humans seen as objects

Work isn’t realistic, looking at abstract qualities

Music and Rhythm- repetition of grabbing

‘Underground’- context, lifestyle and locations.

‘Avant-Garde’- Theory, art

Paul Sharit:  ‘Touching’ (1968)

Repeated work

Discovering new forms of film

Stan Brakhage ‘Mothlight’ (1963)

‘Interventional’ film

Objects/shapes put onto the actual film

‘Imaginative’ film- hard work

Similar to Jackson Pollock’s work

Malcolm Le Grice ‘Berlin House’ (1970)

Repetition of the movement

Experiment with the actual Film material

‘Chemicals, color’s, light’ make the film

Projected onto a screen through light- ‘Decomposing’ film

Peter Kubelka ‘Amulf Rainer’ (Late 50s)

Lighting- flashing then dark

Trying to find the specificity of the meaning- what is film made of? What is being recorded/shown?

Peter Gidal ‘Room Film’ (1970)

Films an entire room closely through zoom

Michael Snow ‘Wavelength’

Weeklong zoom into the window

Material/Essence of the film

Questioning film as a medium- Narrative, Characters, Time, Setting, and Color.

Changes color over time

‘Abstract’ film

‘Viewer’s experience/participation’- Realization that film is more than just the material.

Marcel Broodthaers ‘A Voyage on the North Sea: Art in the Age of the Post-Medium’ (1974)

Student of Greenberg (Late 60s)

‘Post-Medium’ condition (After Post-Modernism)

‘Museum of Modern Art: The Ego System’ 

What is art?

Pages of a book-  Different visuals (Materials, Paintings)

Different mediums showing the same item (Painting of a boat, photography, material of a boat) combining the elements (Placement, Faded, Movement, Canvas ‘Brushstrokes’)

Contrasting old/new forms of showing work

‘Specificity of the Medium’ (Painting)- Concept film

                                                                                                               

Rosalind Krauss: ''A Voyage on the North Sea'': Art in the Age of the Post-Medium Condition

Understanding as something that can be transferred to other mediums

Specificity doesn’t have to lie within a certain medium- Art is no longer separated, same as film.

‘Define Specificity of art itself’

‘Rules that restructure projection’ – Television Delivers People (1973)

Film is a blend of mediums and layers of conventions- Pointless trying to find specificity

Modernist Movement- Break between what has been built to the current day

‘New categories must be made’- from Art, Film, Sculpture etc to something new.