Dreams of a Life - A film by Carol Morley

In 2003 no one noticed that Joyce Vincent died in her bedsit above a shopping mall in London. Nearly three years later her skeletal remains were discovered, surrounded by Christmas presents and the television was still on. Very little was revealed in the article, and so, when Carol Morley read about the discovery in the newspaper, she began her own quest to discover who Joyce Vincent was. 

After years of searching for funding, conducting thorough research (the family recognise that Morley did a better job than the private detective that they hired) and demonstrating incredible dedication and perseverance, the results of Morley's quest were shared in Dreams of a Life. The documentary shifts between a range of interviews with Joyce's friends, colleagues and ex-lovers with imagined scenes of Joyce's life. Over the course of the film the camera pans across a table which reveals Morley's research process. 

This scanning shot echoes the tone of the film, it slowly and carefully unpicks different aspects of Joyce's life in a non-biased manner. It does not set out to prove anything per se, blame or accuse anyone, the result of which is that I am left with more questions than answers.

"It is a film about urban lives, contemporary life, and how, like Joyce, we are all different things to different people. It is about how little we may ever know each other, but nevertheless, how much we can love."

Basquiat - Rage to Riches

This fascinating documentary is concerned with the prolific artistic outputs of Basquiat and the substantive ways in which it embodied and reflected breakthroughs in music, poetry, and a new type of expressionism in modern art.

The story of his art is intertwined with the story of his life. Basquiat's two sisters Lisane and Jeanine give their first interviews for a TV documentary and talk about their brother and his art for a TV documentary. There are numerous contributions from friends, lovers, fellow artists, the most powerful and legendary art dealers in the world such as Bruno Bischofberger, Larry Gagosian, and Mary Boone. They discuss the cash, the drugs, and the pernicious racism which Basquiat encountered and fought against on a daily basis. The main way Basquiat used to fight this racism was through his art. 

In a 1983 campaign which long predates Black Lives Matter, Basquiat used his art as part of a protest movement following the beating to death by NYC transit cops of a friend of his - Michael Stewart.

"In this film, these are only some of the many stories that give shape and insight into a life which was constantly torn between public acclaim and personal pain, the bold confidence of has greatness as an artist and the secret fear he would be regarded a flash in the pan, between a deep desire for fame and money but an even deeper resentment that his work was being transformed into a commodity. Basquiat's relationship with drugs and the role they played in his life, work, stellar rise, and fatal crash - is sensitively and insightfully explored."

The voices in my head - BBC Documentary

This moving documentary uses audio reconstruction to "take viewers in to the world of three people who hear voices as a result of mental illness. Around 1 in 10 adults hear voices in their heads as a result of a number of mental illnesses, including schizophrenia.

Kyle started hearing a voice after he lost his job, house and girlfriend in quick succession, he then attacked himself. As Kyle tries to control the voice, he has to come to terms with the possibility that he may have to get used to life with it.

Emmalina has been hearing a collection of voices since she was a child and has found that by welcoming them in, they can all live relatively peacefully - except when the voice of 'the devil' appears. After traumatic experiences earlier in her life, the voices have become a source of comfort and companionship, but they have also made her more isolated. We follow Emmalina as she strives to become more independent.

After four years Chaz is still fighting her voice, which keeps up a steady stream of abuse in Chaz's ear. She has jumped off a bridge twice, leaving her reliant on a wheelchair - but still she feels drawn back to a nearby bridge. The film follows her attempts to resist, as she looks to poetry as a way to cope."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p066kvg5

Tones, Drones and Arpeggios : The Magic of Minimalism - Episode 1 - California

"In this episode Charles Hazlewood tracks down the pioneers of minimalism, which began on America's west coast in the 1950s. Describing them as 'prophets without honour', Charles explores La Monte Young's groundbreaking experiments with musical form that included notes held for exceptionally long periods of time, and drones inspired by Eastern classical music and Hindustani singer Pandit Pran Nath.

La Monte Young

He drives out into the Californian countryside to the ranch of Terry Riley and discusses the musician's revolutionary experiments with tape recording looping and phasing, along with early synthesizer sound. The episode includes excerpts from key early minimalist pieces, including Riley's now famous In C, performed by Charles Hazlewood's All Stars Collective and detailed workshopping by Hazlewood where pieces are deconstructed musically.

Terry Riley

The key attributes of minimalism, its reliance on repetition, its mesmerizing transcendent qualities and innovative use of technology are also discussed with broadcaster and writer Tom Service; Gillian Moore, Director of Music at the Southbank Centre; composers Morton Subotnick, Max Richter and Bryce Dessner, and musicians Jarvis Cocker and Adrian Utley."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b09tbh10/tones-drones-and-arpeggios-the-magic-of-minimalism-series-1-1-california

Side Gallery exhibition - Childhoods

Today I discovered Side Gallery, a newly re-opened gallery in Newcastle.

"Side is dedicated to showing the best in humanist documentary photography: rich, powerful and challenging work engaged with people’s lives and landscapes, telling stories that often get marginalised, whether they are from the North East of England or anywhere else in the world."

Side Gallery was opened in 1977 by The Amber collective because there wasn’t a venue in Newcastle, at the time, which would show the documentary work it was producing. Over the past 2 years the gallery has been closed to allow for building works to take place. The gallery accessibility was greatly improved, both physically and digitally.

The current exhibition, CHILDHOODS brings together 12 photographers and film makers creating work between 1977 and the present and crossing four continents. The exhibition creates a complex portrait of children’s imaginative lives, the social contexts they deal with and their resilience; of ourselves.

PORTRAITS AND DREAMS, 1975 – 1982, Wendy Ewald
JUVENILE JAZZ BANDS, 1978 – 1979, Tish Murtha
STEP BY STEP, 1980 – 1987, Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen
SEACOAL, 1982 – 1984, Chris Killip
THE TIME OF HER LIFE, 1984 – 2004, Lesley McIntyre
SHIFTING GROUND, 1997 – 2005, Dean Chapman
DOVANA FILMS, 2000 – 2016, Duco Tellegen
ALL DRESSED UP, 2004 – 2005, Karen Robinson
CLASSROOM PORTRAITS, 2004 – 2012, Julian Germain
WHERE CHILDREN SLEEP, 2008 – 2010, James Mollison
SYRIAN COLLATERAL, 2014 – 2016, Kai Wiedenhöfer
HOME MADE IN SMETHWICK, 2015 – 2016, Liz Hingley

I was particularly fascinated by the series of photographs called Where Children Sleep by James Mollison. He was commissioned to make work engaging with children's rights, which lead him to think about children's bedrooms and how they help children form who they are. Mollison was conscious that he wanted to document children from diverse backgrounds and so the photographs feature children from privileged and unprivileged circumstances. The photographs are deeply moving, made more so by the stories that go alongside them which really bring them to life.

There is a real power to this exhibition. It has the effect of getting people talking. The above series of photographs prompted a conversation between a small group of strangers. We discussed the changes to family values over the decades, differences in upbringing and the subsequent effects on society.

I would urge anyone to go to the exhibition. I would find it hard to believe if you were not moved by what you see.

Karen Guthrie

Today's Visiting Artist Lecture was by Karen Guthrie, a freelance artist and film-maker, working on independently generated and commissioned projects solo and in collaboration with Nina Pope and their company, Somewhere.

Nina Pope and Karen Guthrie live and work in London and the Lake District respectively. After studying together at Edinburgh College of Art they completed MA's in London and began working together in 1995.

Their early career was marked by technological innovation combined with a socially-engaged and inclusive sensibility - for example, their live online travelogue A Hypertext Journal (1996) was an influential precursor of the blog.

In 2001 they formalised their collaboration as the not-for-profit arts practice Somewhere, their current work spans public art and film-making, and their focus remains on the widest possible application of creativity to enrich and inform public life.

Karen began talking about the fact that when she began her artistic career she was conscious that she didn't have a story to tell, and was an observer of others.

Along with her collaborator, Nina Pope, Karen has worked on numerous projects with other people, and they have produced films that document the lives of different groups.

"Jaywick Escapes is a documentary feature film which was shot in the Essex coastal town of Jaywick, England. Once the favourite holiday destination for London’s Eastenders, seaside Jaywick is now 'officially' the poorest place in the UK, suffering from unremittingly high levels of crime, unemployment, dependency and family breakdown. Yet, this decaying seaside resort casts a powerful spell over its inhabitants, drifters whose reasons to escape here are revealed in this darkly intimate portrait.

Shot across over a year, this sensitive film follows a handful of recent Jaywick arrivals as memories from their past holidays start to collide with the present. Contrasting with exquisitely shot footage of Jaywick’s extraordinarily characterful town-scape – a colorful homage to British DIY ingenuity despite its decay – are gritty observational scenes of the lives lived behind the closed doors of each seaside shack."

Guthrie spoke of how the film does not necessarily focus on 'big' events in someone's life, but the everyday "fringe stuff" that is where we lead our lives.

Her most recent film, The Closer We Get, "is a powerful and exquisitely-shot autobiographical portrait of loyalty, broken dreams and redemption told by its director, reluctantly-dutiful daughter Karen, who takes you under the skin of the household she returns to for this long goodbye.

Karen's mother Ann suffers a devastating stroke that brings her daughter back home when she least expects it. But Karen isn't the only one who returns to help care for Ann in the crisis: Her prodigal father Ian, separated from Ann for years, also reappears. Armed with her camera, Karen seizes this last chance to go under the skin of the family story before it's too late, to come to terms with the aftermath of the secret her father had tried - and failed - to keep from them all, and to find that Ann's stroke has in fact thrown them all a life raft.

With candour, warmth and much unexpected humour, Karen’s role as family confidante, busybody, therapist and spy brings to her audience both a compelling story and a unique portrait of contemporary family survival."

It seems that, just as her previous projects have given hope to the people she has worked with, working on this film has brought the family together, and despite the challenges of working crazy hours, juggling various commitments, and witnessing upsetting truths about people she loves, in making The Closer We Get, Karen has developed a relationship with her Mum that she would not otherwise have. This shows the true power of art.

http://www.somewhere.org.uk

http://thecloserweget.com/film-blog

Agnes Martin: With my back to the world

'With my back to the world' is a documentary about the painter, Agnes Martin. Shot over a four-year period, it ends in 2002 when Martin entered her 90th year. Footage of Martin working in her studio in Taos, New Mexico is mixed with interviews with the artist in which she covers topics such as Minimalism, inspiration and isolation, as well as discussing her working methods.

Towards the end of the documentary Martin describes beauty as "an illustration of happiness". 

This statement made me reflect on my work, and reminded me of a discussion at 1 Royal Terrace that centred around the difference between prettiness and beauty in relation to my Brimming exhibition. I believe that beauty comes from within whereas prettiness is something applied to the outside.