 B a c k t o i n d e x . h t m l
|
2004
g, b, g (Video, 3:02 s) |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
An arrangement of footage taken at the Auckland anti-war peace march in February 2003, g, b, g was in fact made after the war in Iraq had been and gone; debate, media attention, and a voice of opposition had waned. It developed in contrast to an original video I had made using the same footage, finished in the lead up to war, that was politicised with the energy of a message still to be heard. In revisiting the footage it seemed neutered through after-thought. Distanced by a sense of ineffectuality it was simply residues of a peace march. The work contains a sensation of distance, a slow moving research through the raw material in order to find some sign of meaning, or perhaps moments of ambiguity that could express in a frame or two the conflicts of reason and reasoning in the debate about war. A pawing through of the imagery that is as much a lament for a neutered conscience, as it is a political non-statement. Completed in the process of me studying for a piano exam, it is perhaps unsuprising that music informed the moving image. I borrowed wisdom from three chords that end Rachmaninov’s
Prelude 5 of Opus 32. Placed after a clamour of crowd noise towards
the end of the piece, they set a tone for the video amid the sometimes
swimming images of people walking. In the musical work they close
a tide of intricate, escalating notes that are arranged in a complex pattern.
A very simple cadence that ends with the suggestion that after all
that, “it’s just a song”.
Comme ci comme ca, this way that way. The march of history marches on. There will be more militaristic leaders, more dictators, more wars, and more protests. G, b, g. And more besides.
/
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Addicted to Taste,
Video and sound night organised by the Eclective, Auckland, 2003
Thailand New Media Art Festival,
ICECA, Bangkok, 2004
Included in the Rhizome ArtBase, rhizome.org/fresh/artists_A-Z.rhiz, January 2004
/
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
/
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
