The Dirty Secrets of Judge Judy ~ with Yoshua Okon
~ Fall 2006 ~ 4:30 - 7pm _ 10.03.06 / 10.10.06 / 10.17.06 ~
During the 1960's performance artists became increasingly aware of the "fake" and spectacular nature of art (representation) and it's lack of connection with the everyday life. In response, they started creating works that fused with their day to day experiences to the degree that it was no longer possible to know the difference. Of course there is no surviving documentation of this kind of work since this generation of artists was very strict in not allowing any kinds of recording devises around them. Starting in the 1970's, artists deeply influenced by this tradition (Paul MacCarthy, Chris Burden, William Wegmann, John Baldessari, amongst others) began making art in which they attempted to work around the documentation problem by incorporating the camera as an integral part of the work, turning it into just one more participant in their "real-time" performances. These resulted in at times humorous works, which cleverly point at the ultimate impossibility of fully erasing the spectacular nature of art. This workshop will be divided into two parts. For the first, we will analyze some of these strategies and an assignment for a personal project based on them will be given. For the second session, we will look at each person's video in the format of a group critique and based on that, if necessary, the students will make final adjustments to their videos in order to exhibit them at the end-of-the-course salon.
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Yoshua brought with him to class several short films made in the early 70’s by filmmakers who often related to their camera as another participant in their performance. These films featured a dog who knocked around a glass bottle with a biscuit inside and a car salesman who like to fondle his dog.
The assignment given from this was to try and set up a situation where we didn’t know the end result—“I am uncomfortable with this thought which makes me realize I need to explore this feeling... where either the viewer or I am out of control,” Sarah said—keeping in mind that 70’s video artists weren’t interested in the idea of creating an illusion, and neither should we.
Yoshua visited us again on our final day of class and we watched a few videos, one on 8 mm, shot by Katie, of a building in Downtown LA, another, by Sarah, of her in the mirror letting loose all of her nervous tics.