24 hour party people

I've started looking at a new brief today - exploring the theme of 24 hours...

i think the theme of time is vast and can open up so many possibilities to look at so to start with i've been researching how other artists explore the theme in their work, beginning with the work of Bill Viola.

Viola is a leading proponent for contemporary video art and has pioneered it from the late 60's. Viola looks at themes of life vs death, mysticism, supernatural beings, religion - which to me is the more serious and consuming side of time, looking at questions of what happens to our lives, our purpose, a side which can be hard for a human being to comprehend. So in his work Viola really hits you and makes you question your existence. I really love his work Ocean Without A Shore which was installed in a small chapel in Venice and portrays people at the intersection of life and death. The simple effect of the water almost bursting out of the people is amazing and really draws you in to watch it again and again. The low sound levels and the slow quality of the film emphasise the impact of the person standing before you and allows the viewer to experience every second of it.

In contrast I also looked at Bruce Nauman who looks at human activity in his video art, and the more immediate aspects of everyday behaviour - there are lots of films of him performing mundane tasks over and over again. I don't enjoy watching this type of video art but it does make you reflect on the repetitive nature of life and it might be interesting to look at how repetitive my own patterns of behaviour on a day to day basis? I did like this installation though...

Snipit of - Untitled 1970/2009 Bruce Nauman from Zarah Ackerman on Vimeo.

Other bits of inspiration i found...

MUTO by Blu - i love the simple time lapse animation in this film and the playful nature of it, you don't know what will happen next and it is constantly evolving and changing.

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

I think it would be useful to use video to look at aspects of everyday life that we miss as life is so fast paced. This short video i found highlights the beauty of everyday things if you just stop and look for a minute.

Lights and Water from James Adamson on Vimeo.

I think for this brief i am going to explore a few different outcomes:
- video/photos of everyday occurrences to make an animation
- look at colours in terms of how colour can affect/represent mood over time
- printed materials examining how time is represented using collage, ephemera, old and new photos