Curent work...

At current i am working on a few ideas, the main being a film installation piece, i am unsure as yet of the technical aspect as it how to shoot it, my initial idea needs to be unpicked and the content and purpose questioned, i also need to just play around with it, do some test shoots to see how it works in the practice.
The central part is giving a voice to the women i have previously been filming (not nessaceraly those particular women but women i have come across). My previous pieces i shot, the 'Make up girls' and the silent '4 Minute Women' started me exploring individual women, i then started to think about these women individual and began talking to them about their experiences of being a women, this then made me see that behind the camera we had a story and in front of the camera they only had a physical and silent emotional presence. These women had stories, experiences and often wanted to have a voice. I decided i wanted to give them this voice but found they often became too animated and held back if the camera were turned on. so i asked them to write me a short piece on 'what it is to be a woman', their personal experience, i gave them anonymity so they could speak without inhibition.
Now is where i am at, I have the pieces of writing and am deciding how to present them. I am going to test shoot somebody else reading a piece or various women reading them out, maybe an actress. I also need to consider how to shoot it, initially it was a simple one camera to woman with paper reading. i experimented with voice over and with subtitle but this was not giving enough of a voice so i do think woman reading it aloud will work best for this.
I also have a decision about which pieces to include and which to discard, or if i actually should be discarding any. Surely if i discard any then this is taking a voice away, i am deciding who can and can't speak, i am editing the women? This is contradictory to what i want to achieve. The reason i am questioning weather to discard some is because of content, some of the pieces are what could be considered as 'sensationalising' or 'shock tactics' maybe 'stereotyping', maybe considered as directed by me But these are true stories (as far as i and the viewer wish to believe). Yes it is true that i have handpicked these women for their stories, their experiences to a degree, although i have tried to spread the word further than the close circle around me and those connected to these women. Maybe i need to keep putting the request out further a field, as maybe i want a more rounded experience of 'what it is to be a woman'....how do i get a facebook/Internet/blog to invite women to write to me, how to publicise it???? maybe this is a way forward to solve the problem?

2009/10 Sophie Calle: 'Talking to Strangers' Whitechapel Gallery

My recent viewing at the Camden Arts Centre of Kerry Tribe's work, my thoughts about narrative & documentary film, along with this trust or distrust in an artist made me reflect on the Sophie Calle exhibition 'Talking to Strangers' i saw at The Whitechapel Gallery back in 2009/10. Particualry the piece in the main gallery, 'Take Care of Yourself'. I recall the video installation of the various women Calle asked to read the email that was the central theme of the show, an email sent by her partner breaking up with her. I like Calle's use of investigation, story telling and the blur between fiction and truth, i like her playfulness. I like the way she shares her personal experience and detaches from it by involving other people (women), it is as if she is ridding herself of the reality and personal attachment to the experience and making it somebody else's experience.
The video installation in particular is particularly relevant to the piece i am working on at present in content and technical/visual format....

Camden Arts Centre: Kerry Tribe 'HM'

I spoke earlier here about the exhibition;Kerry Tribe at The Camden Arts Centre. Have been thinking more about it...i was drawn to the piece 'H.M (2009)', an "experimental documentary about an anonymous amnesiac" (write up by Camden Arts). Again i was drawn to the narrative and personal experience of one person (H.M).  There is also this element of trust in the artist, in the narrative...Is this factual, part factual or all fantasy? As the viewer i was lead to believe the story and H.M to be factual and i wanted to believe what i was told, which was that this was truth.
I like the use of documentary style with an expansion into a more art installation style, maybe overcomplicated, but this was purposeful, to challenge the viewer's own experience of 'amnesia'/memory. (a two screen installation, images and interview coming in and out of sync, various relationships between images and sound).
It has made me think about the documentary style of my piece i am currently working on and weather a simple documentary style is enough, if it right for the piece or if it needs more. I need to look at the technical aspect of the piece and see if it enough to just film with one angle, one camera. I need to question where and how the piece will be viewed. Generally i think i need to ask more questions about what i am trying to achieve and test out different ways of achieving this. More planning is needed.

'The Women's Building: Feminist Art Workers (otis college)'

Another link to another interview with some of the collective artists (Cheri Gaulke, Nancy Angelo, Laurel Klick) from 'The Womens Building' about another piece, performance again, 'The Feminist Artworkers'.
Again i am not sure if this is the way i am heading or what actually interests me,  i am actually finding the stories, the interview itself the part i am interested in more than their practice. It is the relationships and experience of the women that i am more intersted in, so this i think again comes back to narrative and personal experience rather than a collective or global experience?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWSNY-_KWJA&feature=relmfu

The women's building

Have been watching some 'you tube' interviews with members of 'The womens building', a feminist collective that started in the 70's. This particular link leads to an interview about a piece "Sisters of survival' which was done by Sue Maberry, Cheri Gaulke, Anne Gauldin and Jerri Allyn.
As i've found reading text hard, partly due to dyslexia and partly the laungage, i have found internet based videos (mostly 'you tube') and DVD's a good way to take in information and get insight into areas of interest for me.
I'm not so sure that my interest lies in the political and global sense of feminism but more so in the individual and narrative around the individual, but saying that, i am focused on female experience (gender). I think i need to clarify what i am actually focused on and what my practice intends to do?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlGS3E-bnY4&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PL9BF2A6F540F23156

'Her name is Sabine'

I recently watched the documentry film by French actress Sandrine Bonnaire about her sister Sabine. The story of Sabine and Sandrine's life and the deteriation of Sandrine due to her autism that had been undiagnosed and wrongly treated for many years. It was captivating and beautifully shot, a documentry not art film but all the same Of interest to me as it is about telling anothers story with them present, narrative of a life.

'Strange culture' by Lynn Hershman Leeson

I recently came across the film 'Strange culture' by Lynn Hershman Leeson about artist and professor Steve Kurtz which i found interesting as a documentry type film. I've been looking at art film and documentary style in particular. I liked this particular one because of the crossover between the real interviewing, the acted and the out take/between acting and the cartoon. I'm interested at present in telling people's stories, the giving voice to my previous pieces, specifically the '3 minute women' piece. I'm also interested in moving the pieces from the gallery and into a movie theatre setting as I want to move toward film as a means of keeping the viewer for the duration of the piece and to engage them in the whole narrative, it is too easy for the viewer to move on in a gallery setting and I as artist want them to stay and hear the entire story, Control the viewer more, this is important as it is about giving voice to my subjects of my piece, letting them tell their story and be heard, maybe for the first time.