GOOD GRIEF 2023 EXHIBITION PROPOSAL
Title (TBC)
Practice Practice Practice
Medium
6-channel HD video projection (looped)
Concept
The work will consist of a set of looped video sequences, each showing a professional artist running towards the viewer and slowly receding out of focus as he/she becomes gradually exhausted, only to be replaced by another artist coming into focus, running, until the same thing happens and that person is also replaced. This will go on indefinitely across all six channels.
The work deals with themes of competition and success and will look like a kind of absurd race whose competitors are forever losing. The projection will be made to evoke personal training practice, especially those 24/7 gyms whose translucent privacy windows look similar to the projection film to be used for the work, and make some visual references to arcade video games via name credits.
The project aims to question certain aspects of competition between artists, such as the struggle for visibility, by staging an unwinnable contest and making actual artists — rather than their work — the subject of the artwork. The projection will be playing around the clock yet seem to come alive only at night, in a bid to pay tribute to the reality of artistic practice for many artists.
Practical details
The work is to be displayed at night so an exhibition during the Winter months would be best suited to my project. The video setup will be looped and installed to be left playing 24/7 without maintenance required.
Installation details
This work was designed to take advantage of the multichannel video projection setup I built to project my work Units in the Argyle Street windows of the Good Grief Gallery earlier this year (see documentation attached). The same setup will be installed, albeit with slightly different spacings between screens.
SUPPORTING IMAGES
Street view of video projection Units in August 2022
View of the projection setup inside the gallery
Mock-up of proposed work
Video sample illustrative of proposed work (right)
This video clip is intended to give an idea of the framing and in/out-of-focus transitions that will be used for the work. The actual performances will be realised with the help of a treadmill and designed to make the performers appear to fade into the distance.