Freedoms and Limitations
In my next project I’m studying the theme of Freedoms and Limitations in which I will be delving in to the idea of spirits/souls and possibly heaven and hell/ the devil and angels. I’ve chosen this theme of freedom as the ideas I had in mind links in quite nicely. I think that the freedom to push limits and have the freedom to do things that reality prevents you from doing usually whether it’s physically or having too many responsibilities in the real world to be able to do the things we wish to do. The theme of freedom is extremely similar to the theme of limitations which is why I decided to do both. I think photographers like Duane Michals are very inspiring when it comes to the idea I want to present in the film I’m going to make. I think that being inspired by his work and recreating it to come to life will be very interesting. I will most likely be making a film as I feel like a have particular strengths in that area compared to if I made a phonebook. Although I have been inspired by a lot of photographers as well as film makers and even music videos such as the song Bury a Friend by Billie Eilish, as the demonic occurrences are similar to the theme I want to portray with in my film, which was actually created by a film director called Michael Chaves who also made The Conjuring 3. I like the idea of surrealism and dreams from my last project as I find the Surrealist movement extremely inspiring for the ideas I come up with although this time I want to stray away from that idea slightly in order to not repeat myself.
Inspirations
Duane Michals
Duane Michals first made significant, creative strides in the field of photography during the 1960s. In an era heavily influenced by photojournalism, Michals manipulated the medium to communicate narratives. The sequences, for which he is widely known, appropriate cinema’s frame-by-frame format. Michals has also incorporated text as a key component in his works. I like the way that Michals presents his work as dark and ominous as that’s the way I like to go about presenting my work also. I like the theme of black white where shadow and light appears to be a lot more dramatic than it would be if the photograph or film was in colour. Whether the spirit/ghost is visible in the photo or if there is a feeling of the supernatural lurking around the photo, I think Michals work represents the unsettling feeling of uncertainty. His work links to my theme of Freedoms and Limitations as there’s the idea that the angel/devil near the bed had the freedom to do what they want without consequences but as had the limitations of not having a normal human life.
“The best part of us is not what we see, it’s what we feel. We are what we feel. We are not what we look at . . .. We’re not our eyeballs, we’re our mind. People believe their eyeballs and they’re totally wrong . . .. That’s why I consider most photographs extremely boring–just like Muzak, inoffensive, charming, another waterfall, another sunset. This time, colors have been added to protect the innocent. It’s just boring. But that whole arena of one’s experience–grief, loneliness–how do you photograph lust? I mean, how do you deal with these things? This is what you are, not what you see. It’s all sitting up here. I could do all my work sitting in my room. I don’t have to go anywhere.” – Duane Michals
Michael Chaves
My other inspiration is Michael Chaves, specially the music video he helped Billie Eilish make called Bury A Friend and the movie The Conjuring 3. When looking at Bury A Friend, from the album “When We All Fall Asleep Where Do We Go?”, I think the concept of nightmares and horror links in nicely as well as the title pf the song quite literally linking to death; intertwining with graves, spirits and ghosts. My idea of making peoples spirits/alter self come to life makes me think of the demonic character Billie Eilish is trying to portray. I was thinking of having two main people in the film like the music video where the man on the bed is unconscious but talking whilst dreaming in this dimly lit building and Billie Eilish being the monster in his bedroom watching him, under his bed and lurking around the hallways of his building. I also think the lyrics in the song itself have a lot of meaning and would help me to move forward with the theme of Freedoms and Limitations. The freedom to express your darkest thoughts and make them come to life but the limitations of how far you can express what you’re thinking without making your ideas too dark as well as the limitations of not having full control of what your thinking or feeling.
“When we made ‘bury a friend’, the whole album clicked in my head. I immediately knew what it was going to be about, what the visuals were going to be, and everything in terms of how I wanted it to be perceived. It inspired what the is about. ‘Bury a Friend’ is literally from the perspective of the monster under my bed. If you put yourself in that mindset, what is this creature doing or feeling? I also confess that I’m this monster, because I’m my own worst enemy. I might be the monster under your bed, too?”
Rong Rong
Zhang Huan is a Chinese artist based in Shanghai and New York City. He began his career as a painter and then transitioned to performance art before making a comeback to painting. He is primarily known for his performance work, but also makes photographs and sculpture. He is usually photographed by the photographer Rong Rong. Both of the artists work combined creates an inspirational flow for which I will consider incorporating into my film. In relation to Freedoms and Limitation it is clear that the photographs below connect greatly to the theme.
The photography is clearly showing some people being completely trapped and chained by the society in which they live in. Whereas some of the photos show the complete exposure to the real world and freedom to explore nature and the imagination. I like the amount of depth the photos explore and the rawness; it has an unsettling element to it which I’d like to display within my own work. I also like the way the photographs are displayed as worn out photographs; it makes the viewer feel as if that they are viewing has some historical importance or that the photograph is deemed as special or one of a kind. The photograph above has also given me some inspiration for my film. I was thinking that if I wasn’t to present there beginning or the end of my film in my bedroom, I was going to use a bunker to have an element of darkness as well as to show one of the girls in my film to have a life which isn’t glamorous compared to the other character. I think the image has a lot of depth to it as the door towards the background shows the light coming through indicating that there’s a way out from the bunker which could be seen as metaphorical for a way to escape the darkness and move towards something to improve a persons life.
“Rong Rong belongs to the famous generation of artists that represents the birth of experiment art in China. After the Yuan Mingyuan was shut down by the authorities in the early 90’s, different artists of this avant-garde art community scattered to different parts of Beijing. Rong Rong belonged to the core of a group which settles in the ‘East Village’. Today the ‘East Village is better known as Da Shanzi or 798 Factory Art District and is considered to be the most dynamic art zone in China. Rong Rong is known for documenting the unique life-style of the East Village community with famous landmark performances such as Zhang Huan’s ‘12 Square Meters Head’ (1994). Rong Rong’s photographs are an autobiography of a certain lifestyle as well as landscape of Beijing. Images of dilapidated buildings, bleak walls, rubble and dust are a metaphor of the collapse and reconstruction of a modern identity and state of mind. The parallel between architectural and human transformations carries a lyrical sentiment which highlights and distinguishes Rong Rong’s work as a landmark in Chinese contemporary photography.”
