Localised Video of Shit

In discussions of my previous piece (Localised Cabinet of Inspiration) it was noted that I am very passionate and interested in the topics of Instagram, and the act of engaging the audience.

Whilst in conversations, my contextual knowledge of this type of art was sound, but it wasn’t able to come across in the presentation of my installations. To combat this, I began to consider presenting my work in a different format such as in a video, or performance. In doing this, my passion and knowledge of the subject matter could shine through, and the installations would finally be activated as a work of art.

And so I filmed an informational video on the Localised installation, as the work had a lot of smaller details which were often overlooked by the audience. The intention of this work was to be a piece of video art, rather than a performance. I wanted to test out the video editing features, and to ease myself into speaking about my practice. I also decided to film the video with no written script, as to keep it natural. However, I found it hard to be serious about my work, and began reciting a satirical and cynical commentary on the individual images presented within the installation. I was happy with this outcome, as it came naturally to me to be insulting about my own work, and people found it rather humourous! I want my work to be taken seriously as a fun and silly piece of art.

After reviewing the finalised video, I noticed that I unwittingly drew similarities to performance artist Andrea Fraser. After some initial research, I found her to be a fascinating artist who embodies the type of art I wish to create. Her gallery critique by creating over the top personas really speaks to me as an artist. To further my practice, I will research her motivations and inspirations, and methods of critique in order to incorporate her influence into my next pieces.

Andrea Fraser; Museum Highlights: A Gallery Talk, 1989. Video still – video, monitor or projection, colour and sound, duration unconfirmed: 29 minutes.

In terms of the actual making of the video, I carefully chose all aspects of my appearance, from my clothes to the heavy make-up (which I never usually wear!). I chose to do this so I was able to embody this fake, Instagram influencer. Whilst it looks like I made no effort, I actually put a lot of work into the appearance, and this is the irony of Instagram and the natural spontaneity.

The persona I embodied was a very uptight and professional presenter of sorts, and I naturally fell into a cynical critique of TV presenters and museum tour guides. I kept the editing of the video simple as to not detract from the actual content. Additionally, I didn’t realise the poor audio quality during filming, and so for my future performances and video pieces I will make sure to use a microphone!