Gesture

Write up: Images for inspiration: Carolee Schneemann "eye body" 1963, Yayoi Kusama "Infinity Mirror Room" 1965 and “Ballet Mecanique” (1924) – a Cubist-inpsired Dada Film.

For my assignment I wanted to show the relationship between the body and the things we put on our body (for example: luxury items like jewelry). Along with that, I also wanted to represent the body in dreams and subconscious. I was inspired by the dada film “Ballet Mechanique” because it compared the human body to locomotives, showing a ballerina dancing in one shot then riding gears int another to signify the movement of your bodies. I took this idea and changed it from the body as a vessel of work vs the body as something that can be decorated. Instead of reflecting on the industrial revolution i’m reflecting on consumerism and the desire of opulence. My inspiration from Carolee Schneemann’s "eye body” was to use the eye as something the audience is forced to look at, but not fully look at. The eye represents the entering into the subconscious but the eye is not fully visible. This was done to represent the vastness and the unknown of the subconscious as it is still unknown why we dream and why our dreams can be so weird. By forcing the audience to look at the eye, I am watching them watch my eye. This is reflective of Carolee Schneemann’s "eye body” where she says that the nude woman looks back at you. For Yayoi Kusama’s "Infinity Mirror Room” her pice deals with experimental practices in a virtual space. My inspiration from that was to create a full scene within my video. You start off in a room with an untouched bed, then as the images pop up (they represent falling asleep) you begin to be transported into another “room”. What happens in this new virtual space is in my control anything can happen. Towards the end of the video the hand that is grabbing for the pile of jewelry turns away and shows a flower with its petals begin ripped off. This is meant to show the unpredictability of a dream and how the petals being taken out of the flower is similar to the diamonds we rip from the ground to put on our bodies. the reason that I used a gloved hand to pick up and wear jewlery was because i wanted it to be a universal hand. my hand is seen in the beginning of the video where i’m wearing all of the jewelry just as we are about to go into the dream sequence. the gloved hand wearing jewelry is meant to mimic that but not exactly. The video is meant to show the relationship between the body (as a victim of consumerism) in the subconscious. I have taken the idea of the subconscious and made it into a room where we see our desires.