So today the class set out to Hawick, my hometown, to view a series of works by Onyeka Igwe. We were directed into a room surrounded by 3 screens, and in the center were 3 projectors on a very meticulously thought out apparatus.
When Onyeka started to describe her work I realised that she has a very different outlook of art and visuals to what I'm used to. She went on to describe here process and the stages leading up to the first film. She mentioned that she looked into Colonial Archives which is where the idea for this project was created.First film
When the first film started to roll, it at first looked like nonsense, but I then began to tune into the idea behind the film. I got the feeling the artist is trying to trigger a reaction from the viewer because their didnt seem to be much context to the imagery. As I continued to watch, I noticed interesting uses of the camera, She would zoom into the worn corner of the book emphasizing the age of the book. then it moved onto hand movement where the camera followed the movements. This was when vocals started to come into the film which was recording of a woman speaking in a native Nigerian tongue. She mentioned that it was her mothers voice in the film and that she liked the tone of her voice as she pronounced the words.
After the first film finished, I asked myself what I felt after seeing these visuals. I felt a sense of wonder about the thought process behind them, which was one of the questions that was brought up. She mentioned that her thought process was to trigger a conversation and a reaction from the audience which I feel she achieves in the first film.
Second Film
Now the second film was titled something like Standing on a Man and she mentioned that it wasn't meant as a figurative representation of woman overpowering man which was my first thought. I really like the idea of 3 separate clips being shown on one screen which this one showed. It broke it up and gave it more energy. I'm not sure if this was her intentions but its what I got from it. The part I loved the most was the emphasis on the dancers back, the back muscles were shown in great detail as the dancer posed and stretch. Muscles fascinate me in the way they work and can change over time, so this intrigued me and got me thinking about bringing that to my work. The lighting helped to exaggerated the form of the dancers body with the deep shadows.
This clip gave me a feeling of energy and motion as I was watching it. It focused more on shapes and fluidity I thought, which sparked up the idea of movements in art being something I could focus on.
Third Film
The third and last film had a very different idea behind it I thought. It played on the idea of asking questions for each image. It almost felt like I was being brainwashed, the text would read something like "Did you notice the white cloth?" and right away id be drawn to it. So their was a little bit of persuasion at play here I felt. Other question were much more open, such as "is this Ok" which I felt was a very open ended phrase which could be interpreted in any way. Phrases like this is what I think the artist was going for in her pursuit to spark a reaction.
So this final film did what it was intended to do and made me question what I experienced from the film. I was left thinking "what linked all these films" and I couldn't come up with a solid answer other than, all of these pieces had the same goal, and that's to question what you see but not necessarily have a logical answer. I believe that no two answers would be the same from the other students viewing this display.
Audio, did it make a difference?
As each video played their was a great deal of bass music involved which gave the clips a very atmospheric feel as apposed to seeing them without audio. The images still had some effect on their own but I feel the the audio amplified the effects of the imagery greatly.
Afterthoughts
This viewing was very beneficial to me as it has opened up my mind to the possibility of creating art that doesn't necessarily make a great deal of sense to me, but can create a reaction to the audience and therefore create different outcomes from each viewer. This kind of work isn't my comfort zone but I'm trying to push my boundaries and let in different styles.
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