Catherine Sullivan has an unusual approach to the creation of a non-narrative video- her use of mathematical sequences creates a rigid structure on which she can, metaphorically, drape her creative and conceptual impulses.
1) In the case of Catherine Sullivan, how does self-imposed limitation encourage creativity?
2) After watching and reading about "The Chittendens," how do you interpret the short clip posted on the Tate Modern site?
1) Self-imposed limitation encourages creativity for Catherine Sullivan because, by restricting herself from narrative, the piece is entirely unique in content. If she were to allow, for example, costumes and sets to relate to each other in some way, she would automatically lose the creativity which she had fostered.
ReplyDelete2) (In reference to the post on this blog...not sure if it's the right one)
I see the clip below as an example of what I just wrote about...which is Sullivan's great use of discrepancy between actors and set. The actors attitudes and costumes relate in no way to the office which they are placed in. It's a nonsensical combination of times, places, and actions.
While considered as self imposed limitations Catherine Sullivan has used these limitations to her advantages to create non narrative video installations that systematically evoke emotion. Sullivan's rigid structure is symbolic of the ways in which we understand and process information. While using the techniques of repetition and overlay she had metaphorically represented the brain's desire to capture process information. These snippets are a reflection of her observations as well as a critique of the brain's capacity and ideas of memory.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure if i am watching the right posting but I do think it is interest how Catherine Sullivan has choreographed these performances to create a narration between character and space. Her choice of staggering the actors is interesting because independently each character is performing their own sequence but when put together it is rhythmic and relays a story with just motion. In these performance pieces Sullivan is playing with the ideas of time, space, and interaction; with themselves, each other, and the audience.
1) Subscribing to a set of limitations such as her D-pattern structure of choreography and segregating the performance of each performer to strictly of their own experimentation produces a set of objectives which Catherine Sullivan can address as a whole piece and respond to individually. Each performer can provide patterns and normative actions per action in sequence which can contrast or allign with another's. It is experimentation with juxtapositions of images, but in a temporal and emotional context.
ReplyDeleteI love the blatent provocation of these hysteric characters. They are locked into patterns of motion. In the disordered office setting, with 19th century leisure class characters and late fifties mr. and mrs. Jones in the office -types, we can interpret the patterns of motion within these social scopes as normative behaviors that transcend to each of these classifications. Their self-involvement with personalized hysteria is potent to evoke a metaphorical space which these all exist within but highlights the particularity of each figure within their pattern, rhythm, and place.
2) After watching and reading about "The Chittendens," how do you interpret the short clip posted on the Tate Modern site?