When I pushed that play button and I saw the stationary knife I thought, "I wonder if the video is just the knife being still and nothing else," (because that seems like the artistic way to go). But I was wrong, slightly. It was a knife reflecting different colors. I have to admit, it was more than just a knife sitting there. When I first saw the color red fill up the knife, I associated it with killing/blood, and how maybe the knife seemingly filling up (like a cup) with red, represented the rising number of kills. However, I stopped thinking that once I saw the color go away and was replaced by the color blue and so on with other colors. So I guess, when you watch it, you sit there and at some point you get that boredom, we talked about in another video, and with that boredom you start thinking about the color and the knife and the associations, like I did with red. To me, it seems like the slow pace of the video, makes your mind wander to different things, that might be caused by what you are seeing. As a side note, while watching this video, I thought of a computer screensaver lol.
The Chair
I enjoyed this one better, probably because I found a gracefulness in it. What I think are strips of colored paper, seemed to me like feathers or leaves. My favorite part was the beginning, where all you see is a very dark lit room and an ambiguous chair, then a sudden contrast is met when you see a gently falling piece of colored paper against the dark background. After that, it began to get repetitive, but in an interesting way. It was more fast paced in terms of what colors came next than the knife, but you kind of lose your ability to think about one color in conjunction to the whole. However, in exchange for that, you end up looking at the big picture. Then, what you see is a dark room and chair, being consumed by color, I got the sense of an old wooden chair left out on the porch in fall, so that all the leaves start to cover the chair, like in a season-based montage. But that's just me I think.
In 'The Knife' I find it interesting to think about what might be off camera, causing the knife to reflect different colors. Then you think about the significance of the colors and why they are being shown and then taken away. In 'The Chair' I thought of what was above the camera shot, like who is dropping the colors 'paper' and from where. I also thought about the natural sensation you get from viewing artificial objects. For one thing, it is set indoors, the chair is manmade and the colored paper is manmade as well, even if it isn't paper. But the grace of the falling colors imitates this natural feeling of leaves and feathers and is brought out, because of such a dark background, causing the colors to highlight extremely.
ReplyDeleteOh man, I missed the 'tar and feather' thing. I don't know if it was my eyesight or what, but the vid on my computer looked really pixelated/blurry so I didn't realize that was tar on the chair.
ReplyDeleteIn that case, I don't take back anything I said, but with that in mind I think that the chair gives off this bad aura. Tar and feathering happens as punishment, so what did the chair do to get this treatment? Is it a comment on utilitarian objects (as art)? I'm not sure, but that's my train of thought. Then again, the colors diffuse the fact that tar and feathering is a bad thing. Makes it sort of calming yet playful. Maybe it signifies the audiences who took excitement when watching this sort of punishment that was given in ye old times, even though it was bad. We are the audience, absorbing this positive feeling given by the colorful feathers, even though this chair is being punished via tar and feathering.