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Five2Watch: Characterisation


In response to our Digital Resident Jaron Hill we’ve selected five artists who have explored characterisation within their work: jojo taylor, Robert Foster, Claire de Lune, Cultura Plasmic Inc and Victoria Rance.


Open Day (Extracts from film), 2017

jojo taylor

Open Day is a film based on real life stories of altered states of consciousness.

Director, concept, co-editor, singing, zither and bowed psaltery, costumes and sound design Jojo Taylor.

Cinematographer, editor and visual effects artist Craig Maret.

Extracts can be seen here

jojo taylor

 

Leftovers, 2014

Robert Foster

Performed for 'FLAT_PAK', Toast, Manchester, UK (2014)

Robert Foster

 

Divine Triad, 2016

Claire de Lune

Divine Triad

glazed ceramic

13 x 15 cm

2016

Claire de Lune

 

Hold Me, 2018

Cultura Plasmic Inc

Hold Me is a video installation that looks at intimacy within our use of digital technology. It’s estimated that we touch our phones around 200-300 times a day, indicating a close physical relationship with our devices, and the divide or boundary that the screen presents along with virtual aliases mean that many people turn to online spaces to reveal their deepest thoughts. Our smartphones take the place of therapists and through forums, social media, chat spaces, we reveal a side of ourselves (ironically, quite publicly) that we might feel uncomfortable revealing to our friends and family.

The installation looks at the relationship between reality and artifice, and how digital masks, near anonymity, and the fluidity of online identities allow us to perhaps be more honest and open about our mental health.

Specifically, Hold Me looks at how young people are using smartphones and experimenting with the presentation of their online selves to seek advice concerning social isolation, insecurity and emotional support. It also incorporates the recent trend of ‘fluffy slime’ videos and how recent research has found that teenagers are consuming these videos as a form of ‘microtherapy’ to relieve anxiety (see this article in Wired magazine and research from Dr Anita Deák, Psychology Professor at the University of Pécs, Hungary).

The on-screen character is dressed with a yellow emoji face, a radio antennae headband, and a necklace of found cassette tapes, film reels and mobile phones.

The script (anonymised) is researched from forums, chat spaces and Google searches.

Cultura Plasmic Inc

 

The Night Horse and The Holy Baboon, 2017

Victoria Rance

A sculptural tableaux dealing with political power and hierarchies and the rise of the Trickster in contemporary culture overshadowing liberal values. The Night Horse and The Holy Baboon is based on a talismanic object in the Pitt Rivers collection which makes the rider invisible at night in order to kill enemies.

Victoria Rance

 

  

Published 22 June 2021

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