Hold Catalogue Web

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Hold

Eloise Calandre Tamsin Green Scott Morrison David Mutch Heidi Yardley

Curated by Simone Hine


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Hold

Eloise Calandre, Tamsin Green, Scott Morrison, David Mutch and Heidi Yardley

Curated by Simone Hine

Screen Space

10 th September 2nd October 2010

Hold brings together fve contemporary artists whose works drawupon the interrelated histories o art and cinema and in so doing generatea tension between stillness and motion. For many o these artists therelationship between stillness and motion is not their primary concern.However, a ocus on cinema has drawn each o the artists, in dierent ways, togenerate this tension because stillness and motion have historically defnedart and cinema respectively.

Hold (2010) Exhibition Detail (Scott Morrison (2009) oceanechoes; Tamsin Green (2010)Untitledand Heidi Yardley (2009) Everything I Cannot See).


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Heidi Yardleys painting Everything I Cannot See (2009) depicts awomans arm resting across a oral bedspread. Her palm aces upward, butis not completely exposed. There is vulnerability in this image that is markedby ominous undertones that seem to emanate rom the deep shadow castby the womans unseen body. Rendered in the eshy realism o Yardleyspractice, Everything I Cannot See evokes a deathly stillness, while at the sametime beckons the viewer to breathe lie into the narratives evoked by theimage.

Anne Hollander has argued that certain pre-cinematic paintings,namely those o the Northern tradition, evoke the randomness and partialityo human vision which generate narratives beyond what is visually containedwithin the rame1. It is this desire to move beyond the rame that paintinginitiated and cinema continued. Yardleys paintings have a clear cinematicaesthetic. Lighting, raming, palette and subject all suggest 1970s cinema, butit is the raming o these images that so clearly suggest cinematic narratives.The paintings depict small unexplained ragments that appear to be part o a

wider scene that we, as audience, are not privy to. The desire to move beyondthe rame is created by the deliberate truncation o scenes which invites theviewer to speculate about what lies beyond this ragment. This speculationdraws the image outward and beyond the rame. This idea is cleverly alludedto by Yardley hersel through the title Everything I Cannot See.

Yardley oten displays her paintings in clusters or sequences, andin so doing orges narrative connections between the individual ragmentspresented in each painting. The Night Rider(2009) series is presented here asa sequence o three images, an unzipped leather jacket revealing the barechest o man whose ace we cannot see, a television in the corner o what

Heidi Yardley (2010) Night Rider #1, Night Rider #2 and Night Rider #3, Oil on Board.


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is presumably a hotel room, and a womans stockinged eet poised as sheappears to be descending o a couch. A similar lighting and colour palletcreates a continuity across the paintings, making them appear as though theyare individual moments taken rom a larger scene. Yardley takes the historicalconnection between painterly and cinematic aesthetics and amplifes it by

creating connections across the individual paintings.

Hollanders argument understands certain paintings to be part o apre-cinematic history that is not determined by technological innovation, butis marked by discreet shits in the logic o image making. The shits betweendierent logics, shared by art and cinema, inorm each o the works in thisexhibition in dierent ways. The works utilise medium specifc traditions in artand cinema, creating tensions in the dichotomy o stillness and motion. Stillimages suggest movement beyond themselves, namely through narrative,and moving images suggest stasis in the absence o narrative.

David Mutchs single photographic image Untitled #10 rom TheTourist series (2009 -2010) depicts a careully ramed landscape marked bydeep shadows and a washed-out colour palette. The landscape provides abackground on which a single fgure walks along a desolate unsealed road.Just as Yardleys work suggests narratives beyond the rame, this imagespeaks o the road travelled and the road yet to be travelled. This presumed

narrative, evoked here in a photograph with a 16:9 cinematic ratio andcareully constructed aesthetic, suggests a cinematic reeze rame.

Hold (2010) Exhibition Detail (Eloise Calandre (2010) Cradle and David Mutch (2009-10)

Untitled #10).


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Untitled #10 oscillates between photography and cinema, and in sodoing reproduces the tension between stillness and motion at the heart othe moving image. The still photogram, which comprises all moving images,is erased by the projectors motion when viewed at twenty-our rames a

second. Furthermore, the materiality o the image is erased in cinema as thesequence o stills is projected in motion.

A photograph that appears cinematic provides a return to the hiddenphotogram and thereore reminds us o the hidden stillness and materiality othe moving image. Untitled #10 does not disguise its materiality, instead thetexture o the paper and the intensity o the ink creates a surace that one isdrawn towards. Furthermore the picture is ramed by a white boarder typicalo photographic prints, rather than the black border o darkened cinemaswhich conceals the physicality o the image in avour o the elusiveness olight.

The oscillation between cinema and photography is also an oscillationbetween motion and stillness. Untitled #10, as with Mutchs other photographicworks, heightens the way still photographs temporally unold as the viewercasts their eyes across the image, unable to ocus on everything at once2. Thisis the inevitable aect o any still image; however the careul arrangement othe visual elements make conscious the otherwise subconscious process oseeing each detail o an image in sequence. When approaching this work, theeye unctions in a manner analogous with a camera zooming-in on details

David Mutch (2009-10) Untitled #10 rom the series The Tourist, Photograph.


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not possible to see rom aar. What at frst appears like a double-page ashionphotograph is transormed on closer inspection when it becomes obviousthat the central fgure is wearing a disposable raincoat. When I look at thisphotograph the raincoat becomes a type o manuacturedpunctum3. Insteado suggesting a world beyond the rame, it suggests flm narratives in general,

but more specifcally the recent post apocalyptic flm The Road(2009) wherethe two main characters walk along desolate roads across similarly washed-out landscapes4. Untitled #10 generates meaning through the interplay owhat we know about cinema, but do not know about this image.

In opposition to Yardleys paintings and Mutchs photograph,which are still but suggest movement through narrative, Scott Morrisonsvideo oceanechoes (2009) is constantly in motion and yet resists narrative.In oceanechoes movement, like sound, is based in rhythm as opposed to aprogression o narrative. The video creates an experience o the feld; thetouch o the wind, the brushing o grass against skin, the amiliar earthy smello the feld. This work evokes senses linked to lived experience. This is not tosuggest that the work is hostile to narrative, but in isolation it does not overtlysuggest narrative. Jeremy Gilbert-Roth has spoken o a visual remainder asthat in the visual which alls outside o language, resisting description andanalysis5. It is this visual component that is oten secondary to narrative invisual culture, which Morrison makes central to this work.

As the camera moves through the feld, blades o grass icker acrossthe screen and the pace o the video changes depending on the length othe edits, which overlap and meld together. In moments o ast editing theblades o grass appear to be fxed yet moving, in a manner reminiscent oStan Brakhages projected collages attached directly to tape or flm stock6- a link to the materiality o the image that can only be inerred in thedigital context. Likewise, these moments o hyper-activity evoke the verybeginning o cinema where the icker eect, caused by the visibility o

the space between each photogram, was a constant reminder o the stillimage at cinemas base. A similar ickering occurs in oceanechoes as theedits become so close together that the video appears to be comprised oa series o photographic stills. At the same time the slow movement o thecamera, o which the edits are actually comprised, acts as a cross current tothe pace created by the ast edits. In these moments the image appears tobe moving rapidly, yet simultaneously evokes stillness. oceanechoes createsthe still/motion eect o both Brakhages collages and the icker eect, yetit is achieved through editing, rather than literally revealing the still image atcinemas base.


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Despite the movement o the camera, its subject and editing, theconstant ocus on the grass at a continuous ocal depth creates an overarchingstasis within the otherwise moving video. oceanechoes expands the rame

o the still image in order to include movement, yet the fxed gaze resistsprogression beyond the rhythms o the edits and soundtrack. So, when thevideo swings rom the renetic to the pensive, it seems as though thesedierent acets are expanded elements o the same image and the videoappears once again to be simultaneously moving and stationary.

Positioned somewhere between Yardleys and Mutchs still scenesand Morrisons moving image, Eloise Calandres video Cradle (2010) evolvesincrementally, yet maintains a fxed rame upon its stationary subject. For a

large part o the loop the video appears to be a still image depicting outo ocus lights against the night. As the video slowly comes into ocus, anambiguous scene is revealed. The camera appears to be at an angle on whatis possibly a orest oor. There is moss in the oreground and lights in thedistance - small indicators o a larger scenario. Both the camera and thesubject o the cameras gaze are stationary, yet the work slowly evolves as theshot moves in and out o ocus. The changes in the image are solely causedby the cameras arteact. The work evolves due to the eect o the mechanicalmovement o the cameras lens. This movement is specifc to optical devicesand is not possible to reproduce outside o this context. Although the changeis produced through the movement o the camera lens, there is something

Scott Morrison (2009) oceanechoes, Video Still.


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specifcally visual about this kinetic change. The eect is not only perceivedvisually, but it reproduces an eect o the human eye.

Such a clear ocus on the arteacts o the camera is reminiscent ostructuralist flms, yet as the video evolves it is clear that this is not simplya structuralist experiment into the limits o the medium, because theorest at night is such an evocative setting. In the absence o narrative cuesto direct meaning, many possibilities arise. But as I look at this image thecamera aligns itsel with the human eye in a strangely static cinema veritstyle. As the camera lies tilted on the ground, stationary and unable to move,the in and out o ocus suggests an in and out o consciousness. Here, inthis abricated version o events, the abstract and representational become

modes o consciousness. The human eye and the camera both have the abilityto blur vision; thereore the cameras inability to ocus becomes the personbehind the cameras inability to ocus. In these moments narratives spiral outrom this hal-watched, hal-imagined, scene and moments o stillness onceagain become sites o narrative development.

Each o the works in this exhibition, in the absence o defnednarratives, presents the viewer with an image on which to project beyond.Whether the work suggests a cinematic trope or lived experience, it is in

moments o stasis that the desire to move beyond the rame becomesevident. We, as audience, are not let to our own devices ree to imagine any

Eloise Calandre (2010) Cradle, Video Still.


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narrative we care to, instead each o the works purposely lead us towardspredefned narratives or experiences, but give us the reedom to embellish.Tamsin Greens Untitled (2010) is a conceptual exploration o this process,as she asks us to imagine a landscape that is constantly deerred throughlanguage and modes o representation.

Green presents the viewer with a piece o paper with the wordlandscape printed in braille. Landscape is itsel a visual concept. It is not aword used to describe the memory-laden tactile experience ooceanechoes,nor would it describe Cradle, with its partial view o the orest rom within.Instead landscape is generally understood to be the visual impression oland viewed rom aar. The use o braille to signiy a primarily visual signifed,highlights the disconnection o the signifed rom the physical presence othe landscape to which it reers. Green leaves us to imagine a landscape, butasks what that landscape might be i there was no visual reerent rom whichto draw - a seemingly impossible proposition to someone with sight.

Next to the word landscape Green has projected a video on a smallsuspended screen. This video presents an equally codifed, but visual,landscape. The video consists o a single looped shot o a patch o grass

Tamsin Green (2010) Landscape, Installation Detail.


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with a rectangular hole dug in the ground to house a piece o glass which ispositioned on the same plane as the grass. The glass subtly reects the skyand in doing so reduces the three dimensional landscape onto a single planethat is then represented two dimensionally on a oating screen.

The camera is fxed and the grass and piece o glass remain stationarythroughout the video. The only movement within this image is the reectiono the sky in the glass. Like the prisoners in Platos Cave7, the viewers onlyindication o the world beyond the two dimensional plane o the grass and

glass beore them, is the moving shadows (here in the orm o a reection) othe sky that is physically positioned out o sight behind the viewers virtualposition. This fxed gaze does not present us with the form beyond the glass;instead all we have is a series o cues that suggest the idea o a landscape andthe viewer is let to imagine what that landscape might be.

Each o the works in this exhibition evokes narratives and experiencesbeyond what is visibly contained within the rame. Landscape, does not somuch evoke narratives or experiences o the landscape, but rather it speaks

o the process in which each o the other works in the exhibition generatesmeaning beyond the rame. Positioned in the back corner o the gallery,

Tamsin Green (2010) Landscape, Video and Paper.


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the last work to be seen as one walks rom the ront entrance o the gallery,Landscape acts as a reminder that all the stories that we tell are told throughlanguage and as such have been partly told beore - each narrative is areection o other narratives.

Christian Metz has argued that when a still image produces narrativeit is said to be cinematic, but this is not because cinema is particularlyapt at telling great narratives, but because there is a long history o greatcinematic narratives8. Here Metz articulates an understanding o cinemathat runs throughout this exhibition. Metz wrote this in 1974 just prior tothe commercial release o Betamax and VHS. Both o these home videotechnologies were arguably the beginning o the end or cinema as a cohesivemedium viewed in darkened cinemas at twenty-our rames a second. In thecurrent climate o cinema spectatorship, the conventions o cinema are beingre-examined and the artists in this exhibition are redefning the way cinemais experienced. They are returning to the history o both art and cinema inorder to re-examine the tensions that have been there rom the beginningand are maniested in the very physicality o cinema as a medium. As weremain on the cusp o celluloids obsolescence and the dominance o digitalcinema, it seems particularly pertinent that these artists are returning to theclassic questions that have inormed the long and intertwined histories oart and cinema, and in particular the tension between stillness and motion.

Simone Hine

1 Anne Hollander. Moving Pictures. New York: Alred A. Knop, 1989.

2 Stephen Shore. The Nature o Photographs. London: Phaidon, 2007. p. 84.

3 Roland Barthes. Camera Lucida. New York: Hill and Wand, 1980.

4 The Road. Dir. John Hillcoat. Dimensions, 2009.5 Jeremy Gilbert-Role. Visions Resistance to Language. in Beyond Piety. Cambridge:

Cambridge University, 1995. p. 35-43.

6 Examples o Brakhages collages on flm are: Mothlight. Dir. Stan Brakhage, 1963. Criterion,

2003. and The Garden o Earthly Delights. Dir. Stan Brakhage, 1981. Criterion, 2003.

7 Plato. The Republic. Trans. Desmond Lee, 1955. London: Penguin, 1987. p. 255-64.

8 Christian Metz. Film Language: a Semiotics o the Cinema. Chicago: Chicago University

Press, 1974. p. 46-7.


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This catalogue was printed in conjunction with the exhibition

Hold

10 September - 2 October 2010

Screen Space

All images o works courtesy o the artists

All documentation courtesy o the artists and Screen Space

Cover Image: Heidi Yardley (2009) Everything I Cannot See, Oil on Board.

ISBN

Published by

Screen Space

www.screenspace.com

[email protected]

Ph: +613 9670 6443Ground Floor / 30 Guildord Lane Melbourne Australia 3000


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