The lights fade up, you don’t know what you’re expecting. Suddenly, it’s text over the screen “ART MUST BE BEAUTIFUL. ARTIST MUST BE BEAUTIFUL”. The woman is blurred; we can make our face but it’s like you’ve just woken up in the morning and you’ve yet to put on your glasses. The camera focuses and a beautiful woman’s face is squared in the frame.
Masochism, the tendency to derive pleasure, especially sexual gratification, from one’s own pain, would be like Dr. House getting off from chopping his off own leg in Season 7. Here though, Marina Abramovic struggles to brush her hair while meditating on the phrases “Art must be beautiful, artist must be beautiful”. For Marina, this is art and she is the artist. Therefore, she must be beautiful, as must her art. She focuses on herself here, spending a whole 13;54 brushing her hair (my mom used to brush her hair for 100 strokes every night, so I know maybeee what look Marina is going for). There are certain shots in the film that express the excitement Marina is getting from this simple task.
The close-up here is used to penetrate Marina’s mind and fixate our eyes on only one thing: her face, her actions, her eyes. A close-up, characteristic of French Impressionist films, amplifies the character in the frame. We can take on the mind of the character on the screen. At 4:00, this close-up is extremely important as Marina’s eyes prove to be “the window to her soul” at that moment. Aggressively brushing, she looks up from behind her hair and her eyes pierce the lens. She’s looking down the entire time, not at the camera, which means that there must be a mirror to the right of the camera. The fact that she is looking at mirror means that she’s interested in herself.
The chiaroscuro lighting in this scene also play up the aggressiveness. Chiaroscuro lighting means basically, stark contrasts between black and white. Her dark hair, contrasted with her pale face, give a horror effect seen in films such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, a film done in the 1930s.
Anger and pain are innately human feelings. By standing naked in front of a camera, Marina is showing rawness, true beauty. Similar to the second clip with Ron Athey. Dressed in full bloody makeup puts on a blonde wig and begins to stroke his hair. He pulls it over his face, and covers himself completely. Behind him is a mirror. This film was done more recently, as opposed to the former, which was in the 1970s. Despite their differences, they are one in the same. Both eerie, however I read them as beautiful. Both artists have obsessions with themselves (the mirrors in both films). Her rage doesn’t build; it goes in waves. To be honest though, there really is no definitive claim I can make about either- they are doing what they do because they are artists and that’s what artists do. Hell, I’d do the same thing if I was inspired.
I think it's really interesting that you allude to the fact that the shift from blurry to focus is like the initial grogginess of the day becoming clearer by the use of glasses or just by rubbing one's eyes. It's bold that you say you would do the same thing, but you also back your explanations with why. I am wondering what their inspirations were in these cases and whether there is a correlation between them?
ReplyDeleteI really loved how you incorporated your major/other studies into your analysis of the videos, you really have a deep understanding of cinematic arts. Your observation on her eyes is really interesting. I had to go watch the video again to see it! It hadn't even occurred to me that there might be a mirror on scene and that is why she doesn't look at the camera. Why do you think that she only chooses to directly look at the camera at four minutes? Why not at the beginning or end? I really liked that you noted the different production dates of the videos. I wonder what Marina's video might have been like had she made it 30 years later.
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