HATE: Natacha Merritt

Natacha Merrit, 'Ask me Anything,' Feb 2000

Polaroid
Digital Diaries (2001)

why YOU should hate Natacha Merritt...



One should really question the integrity and creditability of Taschen, having published Digital Girly's (Merritt's psuedonym) daily photos in Digital Dairies (2001). The only comment they have of Merrit's work is her use of the digital camera as a point of interest to denote the mark of technology in the participation of exploring identity.

I'm sure they also though highly of her assets to the medium of photography.

It is obvious that the photographer in question has no formal arts background, her work is akin to that of any number of girls posing and posting pictures on Facebook. Her unsuccessful attempts to de-construct the feminine archetypes is laughable, Merrit’s ‘celebration’ of female sexuality and the naturalness of sexual desire is easily criticised when we consider the preparation required to make the images: her models require release forms to be signed beforehand, the intimate use of the camera requires precise framing and the use of specifically chosen seductive lighting heightens the sensual atmosphere; with both Merrit and her model knowing that they will be viewed and an image will be created, genuine enjoyment or exploration of female sexuality is anticipated and becomes artificially created - under this guise they become no less directed or staged than pornography.

Praised as a ‘contemporary counterpart’[1] to Anaïs Nin[2] by capturing erotic desires and uninhibited sexuality in her self-portraits published online, Merritt explicitly exposes her sexuality and body as a commodity. One could argue that Merritt is in the forefront in the war on a sexually-charged, exaggerated hypersexuality but Merritt indulges in this explicit, exhibitionism - she's an attention whore.

And this is where my attention wanes.

I'm bored Merritt - you don't shock me, and sadly, you don't turn me on either.




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[1] Maxim Jakubowski, The eyes of the beholder, The Guardian, 6 May 2000

[2] Anais Nin is considered the founder of female pornography, writing explicit stories and diaries about female-specific sexual desires and awakenings.

[3] Wim de Jong, Hester Scheurwater, January 20th 2011, Volkskrant Magazine, translated from Dutch,

In The Mood For Love

(2000)

Kar Wai Wong

Visited GOMA and was really intrigued by their current exhibition upstairs, downstairs featured a contemporary survey of sculpture featuring Karla Black and Andrew Miller amongst others, however, the video art upstairs blew me away.

Exhibition: Videonale.13 (Festival for Contemporary Video Art 2011)


Reynolds Reynolds
Six Easy Pieces

Image still from:
Six Easy Pieces
Length: 10min
Format: 16:9

(Originally exhibited in Germany, 2010 using 3 channels of HD video transferred from 16 mm and photo stills)

Six Easy Pieces is the last part of the Secrets Trilogy; a three-part cycle exploring the imperceptible conditions that frame life. According to Reynolds Reynolds website, the work is based on the book, “Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of physics explained by its most brilliant teacher” by Richard P. Feynman
The imagery was very fluid, almost like watching dancers, which was interesting because scientific and medical imagery were quite prominent. The filming itself is fascinating, the models actually look like they're vibrating and I'm wondering if it is because each frame is made up of thousands of images? Possibly, I just can't work it out yet. Use of sound was also very significant, it was the heart beat of the piece.

Following excerpt taken from the Videonale's website

Time is the elusive entity that quietly percolates through our fingers. We have to impose a rhythmic order upon our existence – the sound of a clock, music with its beats and pauses, the ticking of machinery – since only this order allows us to sense the pulse of time as it flows. Reynold Reynolds uses “Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of Physics Explained by Its Most Brilliant Teacher”, a book by renowned physicist Richard P. Feynman as the scientific foundation for his artistic exploration of the issue of time. The artist juxtaposes imagery of scientific inquiry various measuring instruments and chemical equipment with organic matter, fish, flowers or with a human body, whose life span will inevitably come to an end, despite all of humankind’s scientific achievements. The video is inundated with traditional symbols of memento mori: mirrors that hint at the transitory nature of beauty; books that stand for the vanity of knowledge or a roulette wheel that reminds us of  the unpredictable nature of life and death.
Reynolds, a former physicist himself, mixes together imagery of transformation and decay to stimulate the viewer's contemplation of the issue of time and to show that artists and scientists often prove to be accomplices in the process of making sense of the world.

OC

Interview:

► 1. Your video has been chosen among over 1700 festival entries to participate in Videonale 13. How central the video medium to your overall artistic production? Is it complimentary to other media you use or do you work exclusively with video?

I work with 16mm film and transfer it into digital stills that exist in the computer and shoot digital stills with a stop motion technique.

► 2. Is there a particular theme, concept or problem your art addresses the most?

Time and Space and the depiction of Time and Space.

► 3. What artists do you relate to or find significant for your own art-making?

Eadweard Muybridge, Marcel Duchamp, André Breton, and Stanley Kubrick for the dead artists.
The living ones: Robert Frank, Pierre Huyghe, David Lynch, and Miloš Forman.

► 4. Do you think the video medium can address social or political issues better than other art media?

It is the best medium for propaganda.

► 5. Art can be seen as a mirror that registers and reflects life or as a tool that transforms it. Which of the two positions is close to your own art-making philosophy?

As a mirror of the maker and viewer. Art can also register dead things; machines, corpses, not just life.

► 6. How do you understand success in an art-making career?

Making work that ages well.

► 7.What is the most difficult and the most rewarding thing about making art / being an artist?

The way people look at you when you say you're an Artist.

► 8.What are your upcoming projects?

A 1930's Berlin Film.

► 9. What do you do when you don't make art?

See art shows, watch movies, fill out forms.

Singing in the Rain (1952)

My favourite scene from Singing in the Rain.

Cadbury's Flake Advert 1985

Jenny Holzer

"Holzer belongs to the feminist branch of a generation of artists that emerged around 1980, looking for new ways to make narrative or commentary an implicit part of visual objects. Her contemporaries include Barbara Kruger, Cindy Sherman, Sarah Charlesworth, and Louise Lawler." NY TIMES

Most known for her Truthisms series - consisting of projections (on buildings, billboards etc) of a series of statements and aphrosisms. She offers words of hope, but also warnings of a future shadowed with worry and threat to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. She has the ability to articulate the baser instincts unleashed by social chaos in a profound and meaningful way.

Hilary Faye

We share similar thought processes when it comes to collaging, I will upload a few studio shots of current collages within the week. I love the sense of mystery she creates, in particular with the young girl looking at the moon. The forced gaze that can be created when collaging with bodies has always fascinated me. Faye lends her hand to lots of different mediums: animation, illustration, photography etc. I feel like we share the same mindset - maybe I need to attempt animation? 

I've made similar images in the studio, in particular, I really struggle with finding my images - it takes a lot of searching and flicking to find the right image. I use Vogue mainly because they seem to land upon the right mood I'm after, I think Faye uses National Geographic so maybe I'll broaden my horizons, so to speak. Another thing that makes me nervous with collaging is that I'm nervous about copyright issues (appropiation only gets you so far) - I've been told that ''everything is up for grabs'' especially because of the Digital Age but I don't think I would entirely appreciate someone chopping and manipulating my images, so I owe the same respect to other.

I will experiment with some digital collage with images found online and decide whether I feel the same way.

Walkabout

(1971)

Nicolas Roeg

Melancholia

(2011)

Lars Von Trier

Turks Fruit

(1973)

Paul Verhoeven

Janieta Eyre

Sisters Sophia and Sarah 2002

Scanned from Autofocus by Susan Bright

Bibliophile

A friend recommended this (disturbing) book to me, it’s a very perverse take on adolescent innocence with elements of the grotesque. My work focusses a lot on identity and how it is shaped and formed, as well as observation of development/the body. It’s the story of four children and how they cope with losing their father and dealing with a depressed mother who eventually dies as well. The children decide to bury their mother in cement in the basement. Some of the ideas and imagery are quite repulsive - the oldest boy remembers playing a ’game’ in which he and his sister touch their younger sister as if two doctors examining an alien and despite growing up and knowing that the game is inappropriate - he wonders why they cant play it anymore. He obsesses over his older sister’s body and masturbates to her. The youngest girl becomes mute and isolated with her journal, the youngest boy regresses and becomes a baby (coddled by the oldest sister) as well as attempting gender swapping. I think the whole book is clouded in mystery, we know that they all have a rather incestuous relationship yet they don’t seem to hold any affection for each other. The oddest thing is they are so detached and numb in regards to their actions and thoughts that it normalises the situation and almost makes it seem like a natural progression. The description of the surrounding suburban landscape is also quite haunting, their environment becomes alienating and deadening, as if they are the only people left on earth. You get a sense of emptiness, that the characters are disconnected from life. In a way this mood and atmosphere is something I’m trying to capture photographically.


Reading it I was reminded of The Story of the Eye by Georges Batailles, they both hold pornographic, perverted and voyeuristic parallels.