Peter Rostovsky and I had our first meeting on the 27th
of July. I truly admire him as an artist, and a writer. Once we established
that if I was nervous, he would be too, the meeting and conversation went well.
We began the meeting with Peter having some very specific ideas as to the
direction of my work but with conversation and redirection, I believe and hope
we are still in the realm of my initial intentions…
I love that, although, he is a painter, all he wanted to
discuss were the ideas behind the work…
In Peter’s own work he looks for ‘moments of pure poetic
enigma and he initially suggested that I look for transitional moments in the
film that I do not have to artificially reassemble… moments that were already
present. What I am doing now he considers interesting but more of a surrealist
approach in how I use special effects and create a fictional moment. In his own
work, he looks for the uncanniness of the image itself… We both address the
question of how to make an image more ambiguous… What I pressed him to consider
is the values I see in my current method such as the layering, the abstraction,
and the manner in how we each see/ remember moments differently… reconstructed
according to our own understanding/ meaning.
Our compromise…. Finish this painting as he believes it
has potential to be a really interesting painting… In the future, try looking for moments less layered and more pure.
Attitude of mining the
film as it might be too simple and overdone but it is something to consider.
I like the playfulness of my work and he sees that and agrees that it
is interesting but asks me to consider looking differently as an exercise.
If I am to do a immersive scene for my viewer… representing a scene in
different ways… possibly, looking for a transitional pre-existing moment in the
scene could be one of the ways...
Definite advice… be less random in my choices. In addition,
look for moments the film does what I want it to accomplish for me.
The significance of the painting process – “whats the point?”
– the paint becomes another phase of translation… take great liberties or make
the choice not to…
Play with abstraction… cropping…
Concept of The Formless… something that sits between
categories and undoes them
Roland Barthes… Camera Lucida… the punctum – moment in the
photograph with the still image that really resonates with the viewer …
elaborated with the third meaning which is the meaning that is in a way
inexplicable… goes against the curve and dislodges the scene…
Punctum is not intentional… haunts the photograph…exists for
the viewer… Can be isolated and staged
Interesting thought… “the punctum is something you see and
that you project upon the film yourself”
Painters to look at… Judith Eisler, Kaye Donachie, Velasquez
Director … Chris Marker… Sans Soleil and La Jetee
Photographer … Uta Barth
Thought to take away… It might be possible to continue in
the same direction but to also look for moments that do not need to be so over freighted
with special effects…
And yet, I like the special effect so, ... we'll see.
