western

For this video project I wanted to explore a few different concepts. The most obvious being western, but I also wanted to simply begin to understand the medium of film making as well as attempt to undo myself in icon form. I will begin by discussing how this film project reflects “western” themes and then move on to the other concepts involved. My designated week for mod two was western theme. Fo r this, I decided to divide the theme into two major ideas. The first idea was based on a type of “Hero With A Thousand Faces” narrative in which the ‘lone ranger’ was one that the western film highlighted, but was prevalent in much of American culture. The second idea was the icon of the western: the masculine form, the gun, and the justice. The two, I think, coincide, but I wanted for us to look at films with those ideas in mind. How does Kill Bill reflect these concepts just as much as Outlaw Josie Wales? When is the image stronger than the narrative, or how do we apply the cowboy idea to “heros” in the local paper? With that in mind, I wanted to make a performance where I “killed” myself. I had a face off with myself and lost. But my issue with this was whether or not the physical me should die or the video me. Each ending had merit and each ending could reflect that western showdown, but the good guy should always win, and here, that line was faint, if not nonexistent. I liked that conflict, but once I did the performance, I thought about how there could be all these outcomes, all these chances because I could fluctuate between good and bad. For the western, I think, that dichotomy must exist I could become good or bad based on the way I handled the gesture of pulling the gun out. And that is where the idea for a longer video came into play. For the video, and like a few performances I have done, I wanted to dissect and explore the various ways one gesture can shift and change. So I pulled the gun out a lot in front of the camera and played with how that movement can grow and imply a number of things. Here, I think I definitely covered the icon component of westerns, while at the same time, responding to other video and performance artists. I think that this project was similar to Hannah Wilke’s videos, such as her film Gestures and So Help Me Hannah. My piece is similar to Gestures in that I attempt to explore/ exploit a single movement over and over, confronting the camera and engaging the viewer. In So Help Me Hannah, Wilke walks around the city naked with a gun, implying gender roles and the power of the gun, I think my video is similar in that I reference the image of female with phallus, but I try to negate a completely female form by only showing myself from the shoulders up, clothed. I wanted to create a kind of narrative using the clips I gathered. The first chapter was confrontation, in which I stare down the opponent. The second chapter was preparation, getting ready to duel, to kill, to defend. The third chapter was posing, an homage to characters like Travis Bickle; funny and strange and threatening. The fourth chapter was shooting. The fifth chapter was recognition, and this came as either satisfaction or fear or guilt. The sixth chapter returned to the first, only now it was confronting the action, unsure whether or not the action was good or bad. I think the result was a myriad of forms, pictures, and gestures that derived from one iconic image. I like that. However, I am still interested in how that can be interactive. How can I shoot myself in video or live that can create a dynamic narrative? How can I be more selective in my clips so that the powerful images really stand out? I do not want to copy those clips from films directly. I don’t feel like I need to. My audience knows those images so well that I only need to reference them. However, I think there are editing choices I could have made that would be more cohesive, such as how my sepia and black and white are used. This is a work in progress for me, and I want to see how this vast idea can become tighter and more effective.