Playlist:

Gaze

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In this week's Playlist we present a selection of videos by contemporary artists that contemplate and explore the Gaze.


Suki Chan, Lucida, 2016-17

 

Weaving together extraordinary images, bio-medical research and individual testimonies, LUCIDA exposes the curious and complex relationship between the human eye, the brain and vision.

To develop LUCIDA, Chan collaborated with ophthalmologists, neurobiologists, vision scientists and psychologists – particularly renowned vision scientist Colin Blakemore.

Alongside the scientific framework, individual stories – some with people losing their sight – provide a personal narrative that is at times philosophical and poetic. The haunting soundtrack is composed by Dominik Scherrer, the winner of the 2014 Ivor Novello Award.

LUCIDA was commissioned by the University of Salford Art Collection and the Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art in partnership with the Centre for the Study of the Senses, University of London and Tintype.

Check out Suki's profile on Axisweb >


Jessie Brennan, 43 Strangers, 2010

 

43 Strangers (2010) is a video and drawing installation developed from a drawing performance at a market location in London in which the encounter between artist and 'sitter' is explored. During the performance Brennan invited members of the public to draw her portrait while she drew theirs, looking directly at each other and without looking at the paper. A series of videoed portraits record the intimacy exchanged between strangers, occurring as a result of the drawing process. The work investigates experiences of public and private space, challenging expectations of accepted social interaction through an invitation to engage the gaze.

Check out Jessie's profile on Axisweb >


Ian Henderson, Within, 2012-13

 

This short video piece is an exploration. It attempts to evoke something that resembles an interior view; a suggestion of what it might look like to close ones’ eyes but still keep looking. So close and intimate, a range of visual phenomena are ever present should we draw our attention towards them. They are often overlooked in preference of the glamour and distractions of the external. These internal occurrences are viewed on a screen – a highly decorative screen - located somewhere between sight and consciousness.

Check out Ian's profile on Axisweb >


Shelley Theodore, Madame Boussieux Looks, 2013

 

This silent super 8mm film is a record of an observation through a window of an elderly woman's daily ritual at her front door. It is a film about looking. The framing of the window is also a reference to painting. The looping of the film enhances the meditative aspect of the work.

Check out Shelley's profile on Axisweb >


More film and video works >