Trodd, Tamara. “Lack of Fit: Tacita Dean, Modernism and the Sculptural Film.” Art History 31.3 (2008): 368-386.In this article, Tamara Trodd discusses the place of Tacita Dean's filmic works as framed within the history of modern art and moving image, in particular its subgenre the ‘sculptural model’. Located against this backdrop, Trodd suggests that Dean's visions however demonstrate a unique ‘lack of fit’- for the her films serve to appropriate, yet simultaneously negate elements of its own genealogical legacy.
The said model has held a differing utility within its relatively young history, initially as a literal signifier of 1920s utopian zeitgeist to a metaphor in subvering narrative driven tendencies of 1960s gallery films. So in tracing Dean's works within this particular branch of Modernism, Trodd suggests that her contemporary endeavors uses this recurring currency rather subversively, such as in Disappearance at Sea (1996): a disparate array of references and narratives are treated almost like readymades in themselves, anachronistically overlapping each other, forming a distorted sense of filmic space and time. This complex interplay of anachronism present in both its theme and medium, as Trodd notes, is what cumulates to its 'lack of fit' with its historical predecessors. In persisting to a state of ambivalence through its refusal to occupy identifiable space and time, the work alludes to a wide body of evocations- diversely ranging from unfinished ambitions of Modernist art, Smithsonian 'absence' and to her interest in the tragic tale of Donald Crowhurst.
A debate ensued in the discussion group, regarding the dangers of 'pigeonholing' in a (mis)reading of an artwork. Some felt the structuralist inclinations apparent in the text felt too archaic and too 'wanky' for describing Dean's works, especially given that the obvious cinematic overtones in Disappearance at Sea were only mentioned in passing. Yet I felt like there was more to the text than prescribing to an outdated mode of reading here. Trodd was not suggesting structuralist film to be a dominant context in viewing Dean's work. Rather, by delineating anachronism as a key concept in Dean's works, she was illustrating the utility of this historicist impulse as a way of negotiating Dean's own artistic legacy among this particular strand of Modernism.(1)
Modern art so often gestures back to art history in sourcing its inspiration(2). Chris Cutrone notes this to be the "potentially emancipatory" character of repetition, this mode of consciousness serving as a way of "re experiencing" history(3). As a result of this 'looking back', the work functions like a palimpsest, as a residual culmination of its historical precursors. Anachronism, as a conceptual barometer in Dean's works operates as a rhetorical force in uniquely animating the past in this sense, through the volatile dialectics of continual displacement.
Works of Ruth Buchanan show that such endeavours however do not necessarily have to be so funureal. Employing the same logic of reordering the past through lateral manouevres, her project 'Lying Freely' included staging meetings between three well known (dead) female writers, Virginia Woolf, Janet Frame and Agatha Christie. Taking note of their personal struggles, such as facing writer's block and mental disorders, Buchanan gave a conceptual response to the idea of maintaining private autonomy as an author in the eye of the public. In 'Nothing Is Closed', Buchanan staged guided tour in the Rietveld Schroeder House(4), in which the audience were instructed to wear protective clothing and not make physical contact with the house, whereas Buchanan was free to. With her 'haptic choreography' (5) verging between complete seriousness and subtle absurdity, 'Nothing is Closed' threaded different historical registers to come alive again in a unique, present fabric of meaning.
(1) "While Dean makes films which engage with the work of remembering the past, her work emerges from an engagement not so much with obsolescence per se as with the anachronistic tout court."
(2) J. M. Bernstein, Lydia Goehr, Gregg Horowitz and Chris Cutrone. "The relevance of critical theory to art today". The Platypus Affiliated Society, 11th January 2011. Web. 17th April 2011.
(3) Ibid.(4) The choice of location seems relevant because the formerly private house (now a museum) was initially designed to have minimal presence of walls- with the intention of creating a connection from inside to outside.(5) "Lying Freely". Casco Projects.
Trodd, Tamara. “Lack of Fit: Tacita Dean, Modernism and the Sculptural Film.” Art History 31.3 (2008): 368-386.
In this article, Tamara Trodd discusses the place of Tacita Dean's filmic works as framed within the history of modern art and moving image, in particular its subgenre the ‘sculptural model’. Located against this backdrop, Trodd suggests that Dean's visions however demonstrate a unique ‘lack of fit’- for the her films serve to appropriate, yet simultaneously negate elements of its own genealogical legacy.
The said model has held a differing utility within its relatively young history, initially as a literal signifier of 1920s utopian zeitgeist to a metaphor in subvering narrative driven tendencies of 1960s gallery films. So in tracing Dean's works within this particular branch of Modernism, Trodd suggests that her contemporary endeavors uses this recurring currency rather subversively, such as in Disappearance at Sea (1996): a disparate array of references and narratives are treated almost like readymades in themselves, anachronistically overlapping each other, forming a distorted sense of filmic space and time. This complex interplay of anachronism present in both its theme and medium, as Trodd notes, is what cumulates to its 'lack of fit' with its historical predecessors. In persisting to a state of ambivalence through its refusal to occupy identifiable space and time, the work alludes to a wide body of evocations- diversely ranging from unfinished ambitions of Modernist art, Smithsonian 'absence' and to her interest in the tragic tale of Donald Crowhurst.
A debate ensued in the discussion group, regarding the dangers of 'pigeonholing' in a (mis)reading of an artwork. Some felt the structuralist inclinations apparent in the text felt too archaic and too 'wanky' for describing Dean's works, especially given that the obvious cinematic overtones in Disappearance at Sea were only mentioned in passing. Yet I felt like there was more to the text than prescribing to an outdated mode of reading here. Trodd was not suggesting structuralist film to be a dominant context in viewing Dean's work. Rather, by delineating anachronism as a key concept in Dean's works, she was illustrating the utility of this historicist impulse as a way of negotiating Dean's own artistic legacy among this particular strand of Modernism.(1)
Modern art so often gestures back to art history in sourcing its inspiration(2). Chris Cutrone notes this to be the "potentially emancipatory" character of repetition, this mode of consciousness serving as a way of "re experiencing" history(3). As a result of this 'looking back', the work functions like a palimpsest, as a residual culmination of its historical precursors. Anachronism, as a conceptual barometer in Dean's works operates as a rhetorical force in uniquely animating the past in this sense, through the volatile dialectics of continual displacement.
Works of Ruth Buchanan show that such endeavours however do not necessarily have to be so funureal. Employing the same logic of reordering the past through lateral manouevres, her project 'Lying Freely' included staging meetings between three well known (dead) female writers, Virginia Woolf, Janet Frame and Agatha Christie. Taking note of their personal struggles, such as facing writer's block and mental disorders, Buchanan gave a conceptual response to the idea of maintaining private autonomy as an author in the eye of the public. In 'Nothing Is Closed', Buchanan staged guided tour in the Rietveld Schroeder House(4), in which the audience were instructed to wear protective clothing and not make physical contact with the house, whereas Buchanan was free to. With her 'haptic choreography' (5) verging between complete seriousness and subtle absurdity, 'Nothing is Closed' threaded different historical registers to come alive again in a unique, present fabric of meaning.
The said model has held a differing utility within its relatively young history, initially as a literal signifier of 1920s utopian zeitgeist to a metaphor in subvering narrative driven tendencies of 1960s gallery films. So in tracing Dean's works within this particular branch of Modernism, Trodd suggests that her contemporary endeavors uses this recurring currency rather subversively, such as in Disappearance at Sea (1996): a disparate array of references and narratives are treated almost like readymades in themselves, anachronistically overlapping each other, forming a distorted sense of filmic space and time. This complex interplay of anachronism present in both its theme and medium, as Trodd notes, is what cumulates to its 'lack of fit' with its historical predecessors. In persisting to a state of ambivalence through its refusal to occupy identifiable space and time, the work alludes to a wide body of evocations- diversely ranging from unfinished ambitions of Modernist art, Smithsonian 'absence' and to her interest in the tragic tale of Donald Crowhurst.
A debate ensued in the discussion group, regarding the dangers of 'pigeonholing' in a (mis)reading of an artwork. Some felt the structuralist inclinations apparent in the text felt too archaic and too 'wanky' for describing Dean's works, especially given that the obvious cinematic overtones in Disappearance at Sea were only mentioned in passing. Yet I felt like there was more to the text than prescribing to an outdated mode of reading here. Trodd was not suggesting structuralist film to be a dominant context in viewing Dean's work. Rather, by delineating anachronism as a key concept in Dean's works, she was illustrating the utility of this historicist impulse as a way of negotiating Dean's own artistic legacy among this particular strand of Modernism.(1)
Modern art so often gestures back to art history in sourcing its inspiration(2). Chris Cutrone notes this to be the "potentially emancipatory" character of repetition, this mode of consciousness serving as a way of "re experiencing" history(3). As a result of this 'looking back', the work functions like a palimpsest, as a residual culmination of its historical precursors. Anachronism, as a conceptual barometer in Dean's works operates as a rhetorical force in uniquely animating the past in this sense, through the volatile dialectics of continual displacement.
Works of Ruth Buchanan show that such endeavours however do not necessarily have to be so funureal. Employing the same logic of reordering the past through lateral manouevres, her project 'Lying Freely' included staging meetings between three well known (dead) female writers, Virginia Woolf, Janet Frame and Agatha Christie. Taking note of their personal struggles, such as facing writer's block and mental disorders, Buchanan gave a conceptual response to the idea of maintaining private autonomy as an author in the eye of the public. In 'Nothing Is Closed', Buchanan staged guided tour in the Rietveld Schroeder House(4), in which the audience were instructed to wear protective clothing and not make physical contact with the house, whereas Buchanan was free to. With her 'haptic choreography' (5) verging between complete seriousness and subtle absurdity, 'Nothing is Closed' threaded different historical registers to come alive again in a unique, present fabric of meaning.
(1) "While Dean makes films which engage with the work of remembering the past, her work emerges from an engagement not so much with obsolescence per se as with the anachronistic tout court."
(2) J. M. Bernstein, Lydia Goehr, Gregg Horowitz and Chris Cutrone. "The relevance of critical theory to art today". The Platypus Affiliated Society, 11th January 2011. Web. 17th April 2011.
(3) Ibid.
(2) J. M. Bernstein, Lydia Goehr, Gregg Horowitz and Chris Cutrone. "The relevance of critical theory to art today". The Platypus Affiliated Society, 11th January 2011. Web. 17th April 2011.
(3) Ibid.
(4) The choice of location seems relevant because the formerly private house (now a museum) was initially designed to have minimal presence of walls- with the intention of creating a connection from inside to outside.
(5) "Lying Freely". Casco Projects.
I think you've made a very good point when you say that "Trodd was not suggesting structuralist film [is the] dominant context in viewing Dean's work. Rather, by delineating anachronism as a key concept in Dean's works, she was illustrating the utility of this historicist impulse as a way of negotiating Dean's own artistic legacy...Modern art so often gestures back to art history in sourcing its inspiration."
ReplyDeleteAnachronism does pervade Dean's work. I just wonder if the structuralist discussion of these works is anachronistic in and of itself, and it distracts from an exploration of the real underlying function of the work. The social significance of "the anachronistic" is something I would like to research more.
thanks for your comment sean- yes nothing's more frustrating than having ones work misread. I think this process of recursion- ie looking into art history in reading of an artwork- is unavoidable, largely because this trait is something that is inherent to the nature of art making in itself. eg- so much of art these days is bloody so referential...
ReplyDeleteBut then like you have said, regressing has its dangers, especially for theory. Critique should do its work to keep tabs on the differing social contexts that art is produced in, so to better inform and clarify present practices. I am largely paraphrasing what chris cutrone had noted further in his lecture. so here it is:
"The simultaneously progressive and regressive dynamics of history find their purchase in this: that historical forms of experience and consciousness inform present practices, for better or worse. It is the work of critique to attempt to better inform, through greater consciousness, the inevitable repetition in the continuing practices of art, and thus attempt to overcome the worst effects of the regression involved in such practices."
http://platypus1917.org/2011/01/01/the-relevance-of-critical-theory-to-art-today/
and i think trodd provided an interesting context to think tacita dean's work over through. Overpassing the possibly more obvious functions or reading in itself seemed like a thoughtful gesture to me, rather than being oblivious..
ReplyDeletethough*
ReplyDelete