Oliver Bharat - Fine Art

Fine Art BA Honours - Manchester Metropolitan School of Art - Year 2 - 

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I wanted to experiment with projecting ‘Breathe’ on to different surface - when projecting at large scale on a plain white wall the piece stood out from it plain surrounding, and I found that as large as it was i seemed soothing nonetheless. When projected over large arched windows, it brought the visual to life in an unusual way - it becomes part of its surrounds, and acquires a sense of history and time gone by. Similarly to Diana Thater, the visual of the wall makes it seem apart of the room the viewer is in.  

0:46 seconds in : With ‘Untitled’ (Feet), projected on a large scale in the black and white contrast give the cinematic element. The long pauses of stillness in the film give a greater sense of tension at this scale within the large dark room, almost threatening as the viewer is looking slightly up, but they feel like they are the watcher underneath the bed and the feet seem like a giants. 

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Untitled - 1:49 played on loop.

Three Monitor Installation

In this piece I have broken apart a film onto three different monitors, all playing the distorted close ups of soapy hands being washed. The same subjects at different times being played on a continuous loop emphasises an erotic and sexualised aspect to such a daily and normal activity. Additionally, the continuous playback on the three monitors surrounding the viewer, suggests ideas of obsessive compulsive disorders, where people diagnosed are known to frequently wash there hands, to satisfy then mentally and physically. 

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(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tB0th8vNLxo)

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(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kGg55w5P3g)

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Father - 2:22 Minutes

Metaphorical extract of time passing and how we make decisions through life and how the outcomes may effect you; recorded through a mobile phone which suggests two different locations. I wanted to make the dialogue and text arguably disjointed to the visual to create an uncomfortable atmosphere of monotony. That is why when the subtitles are shown there are blank spaces to suggest where the person who is talking is, or where the person who's listening is, or is it the viewer themselves. Movement in each specific in every cut, whether it be through the weather, lighting, first person view or layering is very important within my edit to create adrenaline and anxiety in an abstract manner.

Inspirations for this piece in terms of my grammar of editing were a mixture of the layering styles of video artists - Ed Atkins and Matt Mullins, the cutting between light hearted shots and unpleasant visuals to create a disturbing hysteria like David Lynch’s Blue Velvet. 

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Endure - 00:58 on loop

This piece takes a sound reference from Alfred Hitchcock’s film ‘The Birds’ -1963. It is used within the films poignant scene where there are a sequence of cuts to black crows gradually building up in quantity on the children climbing from, with glamorous Melanie Daniels played by the actress Tippi Hedren unaware of the horrifying sight behind her, whilst children in the classroom sing this monotonous and contagious jingle. Hitchcock clashes the two aspect of evil within the malicious looking birds, with the innocents of young children unaware and singing inside the classroom. The repetitiveness of the song builds great tension within the viewer as every time the jingle is sang, more crows appear on the climbing frame. In this piece I have taken away that visual and added the loop of eggs frying, with the sound of sizzling building up and dropping within the loop. People that are knowledgeable of the film will possibly realise the reference, but other will view an on going monotonous and glorious loop of a close up of fried eggs; challenging what we ideally would like to be seeing when listening to certain music or sound.

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TBMM

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In my tutorial with Ang, she recommended I looked at Public information films from the 1970′s. These ones were made to scare and intimidate, and I think this was a way of educating young people. Watching them now, even though the subjects are very serious and the edit of the footage is very exaggerate to create the horrifying matter, is somehow humorous. I see the relatablility within my work as I sometimes like to create an obvious tension and dramatic changes within my editing the make the viewer feeling a specify way. 

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Diana Thater creates a different world in the gallery space through projecting on a large scale a realtime video of a monkey temple. 

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Maarten Baas - Real Time

This installation I saw the Rijks museum in Amsterdam, and was quite disturbed to see the figure within the casing - first believing that someone was in the case then realising it was a monitor of a video played in realtime. I appreciate the performative aspect of this piece, but I could not help think of ways that the artist could have edited it over a number of days.

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I was introduced to this in my CP lecture ‘Stillness and Time - Memory of the image’, that I believe is going to help me in my practice very much. This scene of David Lynch’s ‘Blue Velvet’ was my first introduction to this director. The film of starts; luxurious blue velvet showing the opening credits, as the significant soundtrack fades in. * Song chosen before the film, Lynch states that hearing the music made him create the imagery of the opening scene in his mind*. It is edited shot by shot, fragments of films, not necessarily linear compared to typical hollywood cinema of film. There is no cliche stylistics used: White picket fence, man watering the lawn, women in house watching crime drama, children crossing road, fireman waving at the camera, man watering the lawn has a stroke falls to the ground. dog barks viciously as hose, close up and speed slowed down on the dog, extreme close up of blades of grass, water spraying, music fades out, sound of grass and bugs are exaggerated, camera delves deeper into creepy crawly cockroaches. The irony and juxtaposition is heightened in every part of this scene, and creates a huge build up of intensity throughout. The lullaby attitude of the soundtrack ironically creates a demented and psychotic atmosphere to the scene.

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Ursula Mayer’s ‘GONDA’ reflects my interests in the power of the edit, colour, objectivity, and also putting sound or narrative information to image in abstract manner.  Unfortunately I am only able to watch the trailer for this film: I enjoy the  darkness within the cuts that makes you ask questions of where the figures are in the world. Combined with the performative aspects of the females immersing themselves in dirt, and colourful first being thrown at them. Combined with toxic coloured liquid filling over the face behind. There is sense of loss that is brought by the narrative; a sense of having something powerful but that slowly fading away not able to return. I believe the artist is subjecting to new technology, and in animate objects and natural materials that are spliced into this film have no sense of meaning or need to find out about them anymore. I enjoy the dominant sound of “Comma” being said through out nearly interrupting the narration which exaggerates time being monotonous; things go unnoticed in time, people are becoming too tec- tight.

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Ragnar Kjartanson digs himself a whole in the earth in a public park; he then proceeds to relatively sing the words - ‘Satan is real, he’s working for me’ for one hour.  In a talk Kjartanson explains that he was inspired by the lyrics from an on blues song by The Louvin Brothers, who had a strong belief of heaven and hell and that the devil was real. Additionally Kjartanson’s mother is very religious therefore he ambiguously chose to repeat this line over and over again to sit see what would happen. He also bares his naked body in his performance, suggesting being born and innocents; ironically singing about evil. I am very interested in this artist as his above all focus is repetition within time. He explores music, sampling and religion as hugely repeated over time, which becomes overwhelming. 

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Bill Viola Lectures at Anderson Ranch Arts Centre

( In particularly -45:20 minutes )

‘The Chapel of Frustrated Actions and Futile Gestures’

The last film Viola shows in this lecture in particular called ‘The Chapel of Frustrated Actions and Futile Gestures’, is a 9 monitor installation examining and raises typical and routine aspects that people will do in their lives; and then, as Viola puts it - ‘all the things we have to do, that when we’re done with them, we have to do it again’. Digging a grave, leaving the house to go to work, giving a neighbour a gift, making a mess and cleaning it up, violence and harmony. 

The fact that the video is in real time makes the visual even more relatable for the viewer; this repetition that is exaggerated in this work is what I want to create and indent in the viewer. 

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Michael Stevenson 

I saw Stevenson’s work at the Liverpool Biennial where I was challenged by doors, hospital doors. I watched other people pass through the doors without bother, but when I attempted to open them I was unable to. 

Stevenson has took the theory of an old mathematician that ambiguously believed that the devil resided within the swing of a door. Taking this theory, he has made it literal by creating a computer game within the doors, which decide when the doors are able to open. I personally got very frustrated as I tried quite a lot of time to get through the doors and could never do it. Understanding the concept now I see that it was as if the devil was laughing at my misfortune and stopping me from getting where I wanted to be. I enjoyed this piece and found it relatable to the way I edit footage as I manipulate and exagerate quite a lot of ordinary objects and aspects of the world to give them a life of their own. Wether that be in a positive way or malicious.

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at W139

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I was interested in this installation called ____  as it took the ordinary system of a car park barrier out of its ordinary environment and into the gallery space which created a complete different atmosphere to these animate objects. They manoeuvred as if they had a mind of there, as if alive. Their movements seemed random, but if you watched for long enough you could see when they were looping and starting their routine again. This piece reflected my interests in manipulating reality, giving these man made objects a different sense of being.