During this past week, I’ve looked at films and artists as a source of research and influence. These have mainly been sourced out of curiosity and interest in the film/ artist. Notably, a few pieces of work have stood out to me:

Orlando, film:

Adapted from Virginia Woolf’s book ‘Orlando’, the 1992 film is based around a main character, Orlando, who goes through 4 centuries both as a man and as a woman. In the first half of the film, we see Queen Elizabeth I command to Orlando that he may never grow old. This addresses contemporary concerns around gender and identity during different eras of life. The film is less focused on story and plot, but more so a vision about human existence. The film portrays a lot of androgyny, something I resonate with and have an interest in. More recently, androgyny has been a safe space for me. Male clothing serves as a comfort and almost persona like feel and creates a different experience for me during various situations.

Rimaldas Viksraitis, NAKED:

I’d found a book in the Mission Gallery library which is just a series of images that the photographer Rimaldas Viksraitis had taken. It doesn’t include any text, only photographs of Lithuanian people who are nude and local to his area. His photography focuses on the people and life of rural Lithuania. His subjects are often found in curious positions and situations, which he manages to take these images by becoming well acquainted with the people around him. Some of his images include revisiting people he knew from years ago and photographing them as they’ve aged. He observes these places as the area has grown but the citizens of it have struggled to adapt to these changes. There’s humour in the images though there’s darker topics. Some subjects in the images are almost performative, with equipment and masks being worn. Rimaldas’s photography is a mixture of surrealism and documentary, though he leans more into documentarian ways of photographing and strays away from putting his subjects into performative places for the most part. He focuses mainly on capturing moments very spur of the moment, and leans into his culture and local area for this. I’ve managed to get an old film camera working, and trying to use this on a regular basis. Mainly using this in my local area, on routes I take often, on places I visit often.

Yoshitomo Nara:

A book I picked up at an artists store, goes through paintings and sketches from artist Yoshitomo Nara. His art is mainly about conflictions expressed during childhood like anxiety and emotions which is represented through cartoonish figures. His figures have large piercing eyes, and the subjects often infuse violence with his childlike figures. I’m a large fan of portraiture and sketching onto pieces of paper or journals, which I find Nara’s art is reminiscent for me. More in my studies and practice, I’m learning to use sketching as a way of organising thoughts and having an outlet for ideas. These are artists I’ve looked at more recently, but there’s a variety of others I’ve thought about over the past few weeks. Cansu Yildiran (photographer), Jon Rafman (Digital artist, film maker), Egon Schiele, La Jetee (film).

Throughout the next week, I plan to work on a subject to aim towards, or to simply experiment with a variety of things which may form into something.

Cansu Yildiran

Jon Rafman

Egon Schiele

La Jetee (film)