Harrison and Wood video here and here
Bristol-based duo Paul Harrison and John Wood could be described as an art-world equivalent to Laurel and Hardy. In this film the artists invite TateShots to meet them at their studio.
Their videos, showing their dead-pan antics as they dangle precariously from a ladder, slide on office chairs around the back of a moving van, and submit themselves to a drenching from dozens of watering cans, are both hilarious and thought provoking.
I like how their work examines the interaction between the human body and space. It makes me think about how I can think of space in regards to my project and how I can push it.
ReplyDeleteI noticed they work in their sketchbook a lot before shooting, the idea of a script sounds useful and I plan to incorporate that into my work.
Many artists do this. In Fluxus they refer to these plans as scores. Many of the Fluxus artists are multidisciplinary and the idea of the score became useful for a group of people trying to help perform one of the artists works. Many were also trained as musicians so the idea of working in an ensemble and working from a script or musical score was a natural way to organize efforts for a performance or a piece of street theater.
DeleteThey interact a lot with the objects they choose and have a very well planned out idea with what they will do with those objects. I'm going to focus on picking a specific location and mapping out what I could do in that space.
ReplyDeleteThe work by these artists is inspiring and intriguing. I enjoyed how many different ways they could push their idea or the different ways they could interact with the object without repetition. They have this way of camouflaging/whiting out the background so it creates a void/space so all attention is on the interactions and movement between figure and object. They are not only interacting alone with an object but interacting with each others presence as well.
ReplyDeleteGood point. They, in many cases, seek to neutralize the space to provide more focus on their gestures, their presence, and the objects they are manipulating.
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