Sunday 13 February 2011

The Expanded Eye

Whilst looking at Name June Paik's work in both Tate Liverpool and Fact I started to think of where and when I was first exposed to him. It was in sixth form when my engagement with Art was very basic. I had looked at a few of this pieces and found them visually interesting but that was as deep as it went. However whilst talking with my Dad about his work I mentioned it would be interesting to go along to on of his exhibitions and experience it first hand. We looked online together at where, when or if he had any shows on at all. He did, It was in Zurich, Switzerland.

This posed a problem as that would require a lot of money and time to get there. A few days later a stroke up luck came into play when my Dad called me and told me about a business trip he was having to go on in a few weeks in Germany. Thus cutting the price in half as his company would be paying for his journey. He said that we could fly over to Germany together and I would wonder around on my own for a few days whilst he did his work but after we could rent a car and five to Switzerland over the weekend.

After this unbelievable luck we were on our way to Zurich. We arrived at the gallery and on reflection I had no idea what was in store for me. I walked in blind to the notion that this particular exhibition and experience would have a profound effect on me. It may have been my first full contemporary exhibition. It held a variety of different Artists including, Nam June Paik, Andy Warhol, Bruce Naumen, Chuck Close, Olafur Eliasson, Anthony McCall, Sam Taylor Wood, Anish Kapoor, Marcel Duchamp, Yves Klein, Malcolm Le Grice and Jud Yalkut, to name but 12.

The houses some very interesting and diverse experimental film which has had a lasting effect on the way in which I interoperate and produce film. Films such as Ronald Nameth's "Andy Warhol's The Exploding Plastic Inevitable". Nameth's film documents Warhol's multimedia events including The Velvet Underground and a series of Warhol's films. This visual and sound orgy seem to have routed itself in my memory and had a lasting impression. It's not only the music's tangled relationship with the video's but it's also the interaction of the audience and the film focus' much more on them as they seem to be the final product of Warhol's Combinations.

Malcolm LeGrice's 'Berlin Horse' 1970 is something that has blown me away time and again, not only way I struck by it's minimalist and repetitive nature but it's electric use of colour and his manipulation with that colour. The haunting looped soundtrack which was created by Brian Eno matches LeGrice's visuals perfectly, they harmoniously make one piece. The experiment with colour has been a part of the incremental development of my fascination with colour, particularly in film.

I went to see Nam June Paik's 'TV Buddha' 1974 and was given so much more. It was on a few weeks ago that I joined all the dots and realised the the effect 'The Expanded Eye' had on me. The range of different experiences I was exposed to within that exhibition has never been replicated and probably never will be.

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