Bill Viola - Emotional Expressions

Bill Viola is a video artist who considers "...forms of expressing basic human emotional states". He uses actors and actresses to portray these emotions in a raw, uninhibited way. His works generally appear in front of a plain black background, so all the viewer can focus on is the subject.

                                                                 Quintet of the Unseen, 2000

                                                                Observance, 2002
Viola's use of  expression is paramount to his work. He uses emotional facial expressions to, inevitably, evoke reactions from the viewers. His videos tend to be slowed, so that each tiny change in the subject's face or body is noticed by the viewer, as each change, however small, when time is slowed becomes a large change.
Viola's works tend to start off calm and still, particularly in Quintet of the Unseen, 2000. The emotions of the subjects grows until they consume the artwork. The expressions are uninhibited and, although the subjects are actors, and therefore the expressions are being acted, they look real and not forced, so that it seems as thought the viewer is experiencing fresh, pure emotion.
I want the faces in my work, the subject's faces that are hidden behind the mask, to have an emotional expression relevant to the sociologically formed expectation of the role of the opposite gender. For example, If the subject was to be female, then I would want them to have an emotional expression linked to sociologically formed masculinity; a powerful, aggressive, dominant expression.
I wouldn't want the expressions and emotions to be as prominent in my work as they are in Viola's, as they are just part of the work whereas in Viola's videos, they are a very large part of the work. I do think, however, that expression is relevant to my current photographic work.

Backlog

Gender identities and gender roles are not the same. Gender roles are produced by society, gender identities are psychological.
How can I utilize the ideas of gender roles and identities are separate parts of personalities? Perhaps the image at the front could be the gender role, a mask dictated by society, and the gender identity could be the person behind the mask, the true, psychological gendered (or non-gendered) self.
So why are the genders on the masks the opposite gender? Surely society states that we should act like the gender we are? But my work is about gender identities, including transgender. I am trying to present these trangender people, who hidden behind a gendered body, have to create or live with a fractured identity, the body of one gender and the mind of the other, or no gender at all.
What do these images mean for the rest of the population? People, like me, who have a definite gendered identity? Well, I want it to be making the viewer question this.
So what are the points of the expressions of the faces in my work? Well, me and women have traditional gender roles, men needing to be masculine according to society by being powerful, dominating, aggressive, authoritative and controlling. Women are, according to society, supposed to be feminine by being weak, submissive, passive and powerless.
I should utilise these gender roles in my work by using expressions that fit these characteristics, but by mixing and matching them, so the gender roles and gender identities become ambiguous.

So what is the relevance of the clothes and background in these works? Well the clothes obviously tend to dictate or imply a gender, if you see a person in a dress, you tend to think of them as female. Should the clothes match the gender of the mask? I suppose clothes can be seen to be used as a mask or a protector. So perhaps I could experiment with using the gender of the 'mask' for the gender of the clothes.
As for the background, I have picked a plain white background up until now, so the focus is on the 'collaged subject' but I may experiment with different backgrounds. I could use some of the images I have already taken and place all of them on the wall behind so the image becomes more fragmented and more layered. I could also experiment with he size of these images.
In Joel-Peter Witkin's work, he often uses painted/printed large images as the backdrop, often it looks as if there is a much larger room behind the subject when in fact all there is is an image. Some of these backdrops reference art history. I could perhaps use images that reference art history. I could perhaps use images that reference something relevant to do with gender identity or societies' gender roles. I don't want anything that will detract from the subject too much. Bill Viola, for example, uses a completely black background which means that all there is to focus on is the subject.
I think I should experiment with these different ideas for background to see what works best.

Backlog

I have been thinking about the viewer in relation to my work. I want to experiment with making the viewer more involved with the work and via the work, making them more aware of their own gender identity. I think the most effective and instant way to do this is to show the viewer with an altered gender. I am going to try using a mirror with the 'masks' I have been photographing stuck onto it so that when the viewer look in the mirror, they see their face with an altered gender identity.

Backlog - London Gallery Visit 28.02.11

My first gallery in this visit was the Blain Southern Gallery. They were screening a video by Bill Viola The Quintet of the Unseen.

 This video presents 5 people who all begin with very calm, emotionless expressions, which slowly erupt into different powerful emotions, then calm down to end as they begun. The video is greatly slowed down so that, in all it lasts around 15 minutes, when the actual shoot would have only been a couple of minute long, at that. This has made me think about the use of expressions in my work - and I will explore Viola's work further.

The next gallery was Paradise Row, exhibiting the photographic work of Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin in People in Trouble Laughing Pushed to the Ground. These were all black and white photos, all the same size, lined up against a wall, apart from three larger ones. The smaller were all printed on paper with a white circular outline.

 

The images were all in clear, thin plastic boxes that essentially created a frame but without a frame. So they're in a glass display box but it is almost flat. The images, as they are all in a line, are so similar from afar but as you get closer it becomes clear that they are all so different.

The circular outline of the smaller pieces, makes you want to know what is happening outside of the frame, all these images have the same shape to adhere to yet they are all so different that they make the shape different each time. How can I use this in my work - the idea of framing but without a frame? Placing the image behind glass for an almost formalization but without a frame to distract from the work itself.

Backlog - London Gallery Visit 26.02.11

My aim for this visit is not only to see artist's works relevant to mine in both their execution and their theory, by also to see how they present their photographic work.

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In London I visited Louise Bourgeois and Tracey Emin's joint exhibition at Hauser and Wirth Do Not Abandon Me.

These works showed contrast between gender - a feminine, curvy, pregnant body set apart from a male block like body with an erect penis. These works are about sexuality, identity and the idea of loss or abandonment. The images were presented in plain frames that don't distract from the image themselves.

Backlog

Gender identity is not dependent on biological but on psychological and sociological genders.
So really, the biological side of gender, 'sex', is less important to my work than the sociological and psychological side of gender- gender identity.
My work is not really about biology - although it is a contributing factor - it is a lot more about society and psychology and how gender is affected by them and how transgenderism affects them.


                                                                           *****

I believe that there are so many people whose identities can be hugely defined by their genders: people such as those who greatly adhere to gender stereotypes. Although people, such as myself, aren't necessarily archetypes of gender stereotypes - gender is still an important part of our identities. What I want my work to do is help the viewer realise how transexuality has caused gender to become invalid as an identity definer. I was the viewer to think about what gender is in terms of identity. What are the differences between genders and do they really exist anymore now that there are people who are genderless, both genders or have changed from one to the other?

Backlog

I have been continuing to create these 'collaged photos' but layering them even further to create and even more collaged photo. I used the first lot of images to be held over another person's face.

.I find these photographs successful as they do create a whole new character and a whole new gender. The idea of a new character being created is reminiscent of when a transexual changes 'gender'. They essentially create a new persona for themselves, choosing a new gendered name, choosing a new way to dress and potentially a new way to behave.
Changing gender is, in many ways, changing identity.
According to Joan Rough-Garden in the book Evolutions Rainbow: Diversity, Gender and Sexuality in Nature and People, biologically, sex is defined by the size of gametes, sperm and eggs, and thesefore by what produces them, testicles or ovaries.
So if a person produces sperm then they are male and if they produce eggs then they are female. What problems does this biological standpoint raise for transexuals?
Well, even if they were to remove the organs producing either egg or sperm- they still can't produce the other so, biologically, according to this theory, they can never truly be the gender they are aspiring to be.
There is a new, different gender, that produces neither sperm nor egg. It could be said that transgender people are, in fact, genderless, or that they are one, of an impossible number of new genders.
This notion links to my current work as, although our minds, as viewers, merge the photo being held up, to the face underneath, as our minds like to recognize and view whole faces, the photos held can never truly be part of the person underneath. This is like how a transgender person, biologically, can never truly be part of the opposite gender.