films

 

 

 

c: won eyed jail

5 min., 35mm, Colour, Sound, 2005.

c: won eyed jail is a 35mm film project consisting of two parts: a quilt patterned out of 35mm still negatives and 35mm found motion picture, and a traditional film print of the quilt that is screened through a 35mm motion picture projector. I consider this quilt/film homage to Joyce Wieland, whose artwork called into question the binary oppositions concerning issues of art and craft, personal and public space, content and form, narrative and experimental, as well as commenting on the sociopolitical environment in which we live.
The dual existence of c: won eyed jail as projected film and as a sculptural object is meant to call into question the original place of analysis of film: is it in the content projected on the screen or in the filmstrip/film negative---the “score” of the filmmaker? The quilt itself allows audience members access to the negative of the film, an art object normally sequestered from its viewing public. The two components of c: won eyed jail are meant to explore the very notion of film’s existence in time and space.

This film explores experimental narrative and structural forms through the use of traditional “women’s work.” Narratives are told through the symbolic patterning in quilt-making practices. I wanted to collect and re-present images in order to create a formal narrative guided by structural concerns. I decided to use only found film for this project, incorporating both 35mm still negatives and 35mm motion picture. Although 35mm still photography film and 35mm motion picture film are made from the same stock, there are huge differences in the size of the frame and the intended directionality of the filmstrip. Playing a print consisting of still picture negatives through a motion picture projector has a dramatic effect on the perception of the image. The result is almost like a collage unfolding and accumulating in real time before your very eyes. The fragmentation of the image re-presents the visual information in a more kinetic form: traces of the image. At the same time, “c: won eyed jail” exists as a very tangible object—a whole united through fragmented parts, which placed together create a coherent narrative.

http://vimeo.com/53054730