Act/React

The Act/React exhibit at the Milwaukee Art Museum was a wonderful experience. It expanded my mind and my beliefs on what art can be, and what it is. No longer am I restrained to the thinking that art is something that can only be enjoyed from afar, looked at from a distance, or listened to. With these installations I was able to interact with the art on a more personal level, and that gave me a new depth of perception. Scott Snibble’s ‘Deep Walls’ and Janet Cardiff’s ‘To Touch’ are two pieces of art work that prove to be a perfect example of my new found dimension of understanding.

Scott Sniblle’s Deep Walls presents you with a projection of multiple people, and once you step into certain area you’re recorded and also become part of that projection. Now your image is there playing on a loop with other images surrounding you, which are also playing on a loop. You become a part of the artwork yourself, which almost makes you feel as if you’re the artist and now your work is on display. You’re the creator who helps to interrupt and finish the artwork. In the same vein Janet Cardiff’s To Touch works very much in a very similar way. It doesn’t take video of you and project you onto a screen, but what does happen is just as extraordinary. You’re placed in front of a dated wooden table, and depending on where you touch the table, you get to hear different noises. Again, just as in the previously stated piece, you feel as if you’re the artist and the creator, and this your art to finish. It gives you a personal connection. That feeling of controlling isn’t something that can be replicated in traditional art pieces. It’s unique experience that helps you feel what the artist was trying to explore because now you’re exploring, either consciously or sub consciously, the same thing they were.

The Act/React installation provides a level of interaction that brings no only closer to the artwork, but closer to the artists themselves as well.

Art Journals Part II: Representing Cinemascope.

Cinemascope is a very quirky online journal that covers contemporary media. It's a journal that features writers who take pride in their quirky, and independent artistic attitudes. Yet, despite it's quirkiness (that's not a bad thing), it still can appeal to an average reader who just picks up the journal and jumps right in. The journal covers both narrative, and experimental films, as well as North American, and international films. They also provide articles about film festivals, books, dvds, etc. There are two articles that stood out to me as a great representation of the meat and bones of this journal. The first was an article dedicated to taking a look at the career of Jean-Claude Van Damme. Yes that's right, you didn't read wrong, and to prove it I'll write it again, the international 80's action movie icon, no not Steven Segal, but Jean-Claude Van Damme! The other article takes a look at the independent and experimental film festivals of past and present.



Time and Hour: for the melancholy mastery of Jean-Claude Van Damme by Christopher Huber is an entertaining and enlightening look into the career of the Belgium born actor. The article is wrapped around a movie that JCVD is currently filming. The movie is sa omewhat sarcastic autobiographical film about an action superstar down on his luck. Ironic, right? Right? Yes it is. From the article:

“(“I’m too old for this shit,” ) sighs a slightly disgruntled Jean-Claude Van Damme after the amazing and amusing one-take action scene launching JCVD, the remarkable contraption directed and co-written by sophomore French director Mabrouk El Mechri. This tragicomic meta-movie ingeniously weaves a dash of fact into tongue-in-cheek fiction, with surprisingly moving results”.


You can't make this stuff up, well maybe you can, after all we are talking about fictional narratives aren't we? The rest of the article traces JCVD career over the past two decades as he goes from a small production martial arts actor, to a international superstar, to where he currently finds himself, the direct to DVD graveyard buried next to another familiar action name: Steven Segal. The quirkiness it takes to choose to write a full length article about Van Damme represents what I think is a very important aspect of this journal.


The other article, Damn Dirty Apes: Dead Festivals in the USA, Jim Finn discusses his experiences with experimental film festivals He talks about how in the mid to late 90's, and early in the new Millennium, the advances in video technology helped to foster many small film festivals that took place on collage campuses and small art houses. The eventual death of these festivals was to due to media artist being offered gallery opportunities, the invention of online video websites such as youtube.com, and just not having enough money in the budget to continue. However, in the end, Finn believes that early film festivals and their failures have paved the way for some of the better ones today.


I look forward to reading more issues of this interesting journal, and being entertained as well as being informed.