Stills From Short Performance Film

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For this short performance piece I had the idea of representing both genders in a primitive state. I found my inspiration from the film 'If...' as it shows possibilities of what could happen in the foreseeing future if things carry on the way they are. I wanted this performance to exaggerate animalistic characteristics within people, focusing on the male species as a predator, and the female as the prey. I have deliberately filmed this piece with the black background surrounding the white drop to create a controlled environment taken in by the viewer, the light helping to symbolise a box like narrative, a similar idea to my taxidermy installation pieces.

For my next piece of work I want to produce a short film that involves more acting and movement than this one. I'm pleased with this piece as a starting point but I think I could communicate my idea more successfully through using more particular movements as well as the more vague and suggestive positions acted out by the people in the clip I've already done. Maybe shoot in a more humane environment rather than a studio so that the viewer can relate to it more? Making the animalistic movements seem even more strange because they'd be performing in their usual everyday environment, yet it wouldn't feel staged/as staged, more automatic and natural.

'If...'

'If...' Is a 1968 British drama film produced and directed by Lindsay Anderson satirizing English public school life. Famous for its depiction of a savage insurrection at a fictitious boys boarding school, the X certificate film was made at the time of the May 1968 protests in France by a director strongly associated with the 1960's counterculture. The film, very suggestive and sometimes confusing, leaves the viewer open to their own interpretation of certain events and scenes which happen in the film. One of the best scenes in the film is the 'café scene', when Mick Travis, played by Malcolm McDowell, and 'The Girl', Played by Christine Noonan, play fight and attack each other in the café acting like lions, which is rather strange to watch seen as though they have only just met. The filming suggestively provokes the idea of the play fighting leading to sex even though nothing physical is shown, just some short clips of nudity. Further into the film Mick Travis finds a dead fetus in a jar and quicky hands it over to 'the girl' dismissing it completely; unsure of how to respond. Thus representing what could have been,something not realised until the end of film when they die together. This film has given me the idea to create a short performance film suggesting the stereotypical primitive nature of both genders, female and male. The idea of 'what could be' if people in the future would possibly go back to interacting with each other the same way they did many centuries ago.

'Do you see yourself in me?' 2

For these paintings I wanted to focus on the perspective of different genders and what they think about when looking at my work. I have found that when females look at this piece they associate its idea with beauty and how women are represented within the media whereas men take the painting along with the text as a more of a sexual interrogation.