PART A – REFLECTIVE LEARNING
My initial response to the question: what is art? Was instinctive and broad spectrum. I still consider the viewing, processing, feeling or listening an essential part of what turns something into art. The artwork brought into our minds through the first part of the course was engaging and well curated, demonstrating cross-media potential, as well as the limitless possibilities in contemporary artwork & creativity.
I must confess, I previously struggled with specific types of contemporary art, finding them a little pretentious & useless.
Progressing through the exercises, I have learned, that one has to approach contemporary art, in a certain state of mind, as well as some background and experience in order to understand it properly. I feel that I’ve begun to build some questioning and appreciation skills, despite the huge difference between these contemporary works & my own art style
Through the first course segment, I discovered more contemporary works I enjoy and find meaningful. My favourite pieces so far were Katie Peterson’s nature / science inspired works, Sam Taylor-Wood’s Still Life video Vanitas. Watching and reading through the coursework, inspired me to attempt combining more of a personal statement and activism into my own art.
. I noted contemporary artists seem to develop a work from a core concept: a question, a quote, or a concept. They weave complex theories around the core using investigative research. I would like to learn more on conceptual work development. Although it is situated well out of my ‘creative comfort zone’: My own work is generally intuitive & fluid. I’ve always used art as a meditation and hardly ever began working out of a fixed concept or with a certain expectation of the result.
Reflections on my student log progress:
As I am based quite away from the UK, I’ve decided to keep a digital WordPress learning log, while keeping a physical one for notes, drawings and sketches, which can be uploaded to the digital log.
I would love to see some more samples of a quality digital log – as I make daily discoveries on stylizing and structuring my digital log, there several issues due to the limitations of the WordPress free theme.
Another issue I am seeking improvement in, is note taking and keeping. I’m currently researching different techniques of handwritten notes, although these are sometimes hard to re-read & keep organized. I’m also looking at digital note solutions which can be later embedded in my log. I’m examining Good note, Milanote, Simple Notes etc, which is something I need to experiment.
PART B – BATTLE OF THE ORGREAVE INTERPRETATION
As I watch the re-enactment production of ‘The Battle Of The Orgreave’. The following questions come across my mind: Is it possible to re-live or re-enact History? Can one regenerate events and emotions from another time and place? I believe Jeremy Deller attempted to challenge this question, coming very close to executing past events and even emotions from another time and place.
From a viewer’s perspective – The re-enactment is well made and strikingly similar to the original footage from 1984. The staging was directed to have an ‘ultra realistic’ effect, which makes it easily relatable and highly reminiscing of the original event.
I note the great attention to relevant era style and paraphernalia – The policemen’s uniforms, helmets, clubs and other accessories. Unionists in casual eighties summer wear, stickers, picket songs and slogans. Viewers can sense genuine emotions like rage, violence and passion flowing among the battle re-enactment participants.
Looking through Deller’s artworks & projects: he can be described as a combination of conceptual, video and installation artist. I noticed many works focusing on documenting human diversity, folklore and storytelling. The way people make up the fabric of places or events. Many works include an interesting curation of (British & international ) heritage, history and cultural versatility. Many of his works include an investigative stance on war, human rights & social issues: For example, in ‘All That Is Solid Melts Into Air‘, 2014 and ‘It Is What It Is’, 2009.
As I read further on the birth of the battle production. It appears the idea had been brewing in Deller’s mind, years prior to the filming: On June 18th, 1984, Deller described himself as a 17-year-old teen, watching the Miner’s Union picket on the news. The images made a great impact on him, he quotes that it felt it was a socially traumatic event, equivalent to a civil war: ”In all but name, it became an ideological battle between two sections of British society.”(1) Additionally, he mentions the escalation & problems caused by unbalanced media coverage of the Orgreave pickets. He felt like that this politically and socially charged British rapture, needed to be re-investigated, marked and commemorated differently.
An opportunity to execute a large scale commemoration project finally came his way in 1998: “I saw an advert for an open commission for Artangel. For years I had had this idea to re-enact this confrontation that I had witnessed as a young person on TV, of striking miners being chased up a hill and pursued through a village. It has since become an iconic image of the 1984 strike – having the quality of a war scene rather than a labour dispute. I received the commission, which I couldn’t believe,”(2).
Following 2 years of detailed research of the original events, the ambitious battle scene recreation finally took place on JUNE 17th, 2001 and publicly aired on channel 4, October 20th, 2002.
My observation on Jeremy’s choices of media: Creating a program on public television, made it possible to access an enormous audience: ”I wanted the re-enactment to become a part of the lineage of decisive battles in English history”(3). The TV airing of the battle, re-ignited public memories, encouraged social discussion as well as re-conciliation.
In the effort of mimicking the original 1984 events – former participants from both sides of the clashes were recruited for the re-enactment (in addition to any professional battle re-enactment actors).
I believe the artist has a secondary intention by choosing former participants of the original scenes. The project was partially designed as a large scale narrative exposure therapy experiment. A sort of PTSD treatment, that helps individuals to contextualize traumatic experiences. By re-living the historical day at the Orgreave – many participants had experienced an opportunity for healing and closure:
We find examples of this in quotes of journalists who covered the program & interviewed the participant: For many – participants and spectators alike – this Battle of Orgreave was more flashback than re-enactment. Knowing this made the missiles, the mounted police charges, the beatings, routs and arrests much more than a spectacle; it was easy to forget the police’s truncheons were plastic, the miners’ rocks just foam, and that the blood running down some faces was fake.“(4) “At one point a heated argument broke out, about who had been at Orgreave and who had not. Accusations flew, voices were raised. Someone came over and abused me for forcing the film on them and reminding them of times best forgotten. ‘Don’t worry about him,’ someone else said. ‘He doesn’t understand. He was never a miner.“(5)
As these testimonies clearly indicate, Deller succeeded in transcending not only his viewers, but even his actors and participants through time and place. Allowing many to re-join, re-think and remember the forgotten events of the Orgreave.
1, 2 3 Jeremy Deller, 2001, (online) source : http://www.jeremydeller.org/
4 Alex Farquharson, Frieze, September 2001 (online) source: https://frieze.com/issue/review/jeremy_deller
5 CJ Stone, Big Issue magazine, 14 October 2002.
Creative Arts Today 