Blog Post #4
Because I wasn’t able to go to the Museum of the Moving Image I checked out the Whitney Museum of American Art instead. Though there wasn’t a whole lot concerning film at the museum there was one moment in particular that I found particularly striking and thought provoking in regard to how the choices an artist makes in regard to the materials one uses to capture a story greatly informs and alters that story.
In an exhibit concerning protest art throughout the years there was a projection of a project by an artist named Josephine Meckseper from 2005. The project, titled “March on Washington to End the War on Iraq, 9/24/05”, was a silent short film by the artist of (as the title suggests) an anti war protest during the Bush administration. What was interesting about the project was that the artist chose to film the event on super 8 film, a medium of a bygone era. That bygone era being more specifically the 1960s, another time in America’s history in which anti war protests were both common and a defining aspect of the social environment. In using this kind of film, which creates a very grainy and washed out image, it is almost impossible to tell what period of time the footage you are viewing is from. If you look very closely at the signs and some of the clothing you can tell it’s from a fairly modern event, but at first glance it is easy to assume that you’re looking at footage from a Vietnam War protest. In many ways this juxtaposition implies a lack of progress in this country, it makes you stop and look at how similar a situation we have gotten ourselves into 50 years down the road from when anti war protesters were expressing their frustration and anger over the unjust and brutal Vietnam war. Though in another way it celebrates and honors the history of protest in this country that all current expressions of discontent and outrage are built upon. While simply filming this 2005 protest would have certainly resulted in compelling and emotional footage it wouldn’t have carried with it the implied connection to the past that shooting on super 8 film did.
In an exhibit concerning protest art throughout the years there was a projection of a project by an artist named Josephine Meckseper from 2005. The project, titled “March on Washington to End the War on Iraq, 9/24/05”, was a silent short film by the artist of (as the title suggests) an anti war protest during the Bush administration. What was interesting about the project was that the artist chose to film the event on super 8 film, a medium of a bygone era. That bygone era being more specifically the 1960s, another time in America’s history in which anti war protests were both common and a defining aspect of the social environment. In using this kind of film, which creates a very grainy and washed out image, it is almost impossible to tell what period of time the footage you are viewing is from. If you look very closely at the signs and some of the clothing you can tell it’s from a fairly modern event, but at first glance it is easy to assume that you’re looking at footage from a Vietnam War protest. In many ways this juxtaposition implies a lack of progress in this country, it makes you stop and look at how similar a situation we have gotten ourselves into 50 years down the road from when anti war protesters were expressing their frustration and anger over the unjust and brutal Vietnam war. Though in another way it celebrates and honors the history of protest in this country that all current expressions of discontent and outrage are built upon. While simply filming this 2005 protest would have certainly resulted in compelling and emotional footage it wouldn’t have carried with it the implied connection to the past that shooting on super 8 film did.
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