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| What-if? In the Days When the Tiger Smoked, 2010 |
1. What helped inspire the creation of these characters or the assembly of this
specific cast of characters for "What-If"?
What helped inspire the re-creation of these characters is our mutual love of art
as discovered through comics and science fiction. Our first conversations about
the characters that fueled What If? were about fusing adult content and
sensibilities onto some of the more obscure superheroes that we were both
drawn to in childhood. Scarlet Witch pushed the concept of the probability to its
limit as she has the mutant power to change the outcome of any possible
situation. The Vision pushes the boundaries between man and machine as he is
a synthezoid with a human soul. While the real-life art characters Stelarc and
Orlan are not necessarily their equivalence there are some parallels in the way
these artists address physical human limitations through their art.
2. Much of your imagery or installations rely on collage. Could you elaborate the
process you take to create composite images or sculptures?
Our prior works relied more heavily on collage in a sense that we used a lot of
appropriated video material to contextualize our performative activities within a
historical context. However, for the What If? works we abandoned video
appropriation to investigate appropriation of characters engaged in the act of cos
play or costume play. In our images and sculpture we allowed ourselves the
liberty to collage elements of our production shoots to create references to more
elaborate fictions that are referred to but whose existence is not evident in the
video works directly. In some ways, this opens up the implied narrative to further
interpretations from the viewer. For example, our long collage works we like to
consider a kind of manifest hieroglyphics. It is another way to explore the
threads of ambiguous narratives as characters are repeated throughout the
length of the collage and are moved through different settings. Throughout all of
our video projects, we have sought out different tools to explore as part of our
process. In the photo-stands and print works of What If? we elaborated on this
practice by finding liberties using one of the most basic image production tool,
Photoshop. The process is often an individual one where either one of us comes
up with a framework that they are interested in working with but keeps to the
imagery generated by the production of the video material and/or implied
narrative. We bounce the ideas off of each other for constructive input or as a
way to push the idea further beyond the indexical relationship that straight
photography often provides.
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| Plastinoids, 2010 |
3. Could you talk about how technology has influenced "What-If?" ? whether in its
construction or depiction?
Throughout our collaborations together we have consistently sought after
opportunities to explore new image processing tools via shared artist residencies
or through the schoolʼs we teach at. One of the key technological components to
What If? is the use of Dance Forms, a 3D program initially constructed for
choreographers, that was donated to the lab at UC Davis in correlation with
interdisciplinary projects inspired by Merce Cunnignhamʼs visit to the Davis
campus. Dance Forms allowed us to build our characters in various avatar forms,
and we enjoyed some of the quirks of the program, like the hollowness of bodies
and the way characters could move inside of one another. We commingled prescripted
dance sequences with our own choreography extending the date
sequences imagining our characters as globetrotting entities meeting in the
space of the virtual.
4. How does your collaboration play into the diversity of mediums (computer
renderings, photography, sculpture, performance, video etc.) you incorporate for
a single exhibition?
In the past we have primarily worked on single channel video works though there
have been opportunities that have arisen that have allowed us to explore
installation and print. In our solo practices we both work in a variety of media
and for What If? we were invited to exhibit the work in a gallery space in Oakland
called Krowswork. We were eager to expand on the world we created primarily
in video through computer renderings and improvisational role-playing
workshops. As mentioned above the prints allowed us to extend the implied but
open narratives through a series of productions stills and scrolled collages.
There are certain characters that we discussed having in our works but they did
not make it into the final cut so they find a new life in some of the prints. The
photo stands extend the ways in which we incorporate others into the space of
role playing by allowing the audience to participate even if just for a photo op.
While there is a lot of work in the exhibition, we really consider What If? an entire
universe. Each opportunity to exhibit also challenged us with another opportunity
to edit what was being shown but also to bring in some new life to the works by
using our image and character base to create another piece.
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| Jeju-do Cluster Ball, Carnalove Workshop, Connecticut River Date, South Korean Trans-Vehicles, 2010 |
5. How would you define the role or promotion of fantasy into your artworks'
engagement with viewers?
Improvisation has always been an important part of our work on every level and
to some degree improvisation opens up a realm of fantasy as there is no script.
However, as mentioned above, there are a cast of characters and mythologies
that we are incorporating whether those be derived from reality based artist or
comic book fictions. How an audience might engage with these characters and
vignettes is unpredictable but by abandoning the script, which can often be so
limiting regarding how images are read, we hope to allow viewers to engage their
own connective narratives and fantasies. What areas of access we leave open
to a viewer in order to do that is sometimes unpredictable. Recently, a viewer
came to What If? when we exhibited it in Holyoke, MA and commented that the
thing that brought her into the world we created was the movement. She was a
dancer and was intrigued by our use of Dance Forms and the movements
incorporated into the improvisations between various characters. Some may
recognize the concept of Stelarc with his emblematic third arm used as a
reimagined prop for our role-playing participants as an entry in. Others may
immediately identify with the notion of superhero whether they know the
characters or not. To some degree, we hope to have cast a wide net to allow an
entry for viewers to insert themselves and engage.
Posted by: Tom Anesta
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