On 30th June I went to the third BLOCassembly (you can see my report and pictures from BLOCassembly two here) at BLOCspace, Sheffield. I arrived a bit late, and spent most of my time chatting once I was there, so I missed some of the work which this time was all film/video based arts. The first piece I caught was Homagery by Elizabeth Adams, a claymation featuring plastacine ducks, which was described in the programme as "small commentaries on art, art education and the importance of either, with slapstick overtones". It took a few scenes for me to catch on to the theme of the pieces, but after seeing ducks on couches, ducks picnicking on the lawn, duck ballerinas, ducks covered in blue paint writhing on canvases, ducks in formaldehyde, etc etc etc, I realised I was watching the history of art as re-enacted by small animated plastacine animals. Lots of fun.
Next up was Restricted View/1 by Susanne Palzer. Footage from a 70s American cop show, featuring an outrageously camp drag artist and some apparently closet homosexuality. There was something strangely familiar about the show, but the strange jump edits made me wonder what was missing and how the various parts linked together. It was only when I read the programme that I realised this was an episode of Starsky and Hutch with all appearances by Starsky and/or Hutch edited out. Made for an interesting study of what's left over once the main focus of attention has gone.
Outside in the courtyard, several TVs (and a Mini-DVD player, viewable through a telescope) played pieces on continual loop. I didn't get a proper look at any of these, something which could well be the fault of Drink by Sheena MacRae, another piece of re-appropriated American TV. This time the source material was the soap opera Dallas: an entire series-worth edited down to show just the scenes of characters drinking – seven minutes in total. Placing this right next to the bar was either a very bad or a very good move. I'm sure shots of JR repeatededly knocking back large whiskeys had some subliminal influence upon my habits that evening, and go some way towards explaining why my memories beyond this point are rather fuzzy.
As I stood outside, drinking, Linda Bevan performed her untitled piece, walking carefully back and forth around the courtyard, laying down pieces of paper (flyers for the event), walking over them, re-tracing her steps and collecting them up. In the programme she explained that "my art practice has included me using high heels, bubble wrap, cardboard boxes, and sheets of cardboard as important perpetual props to make my art. It is imperative to my practice that I don't allow a prop to remain a trace left over from an event, but come back and perform a task that allows me to activate it again". By this stage, I think I'd had too much Dallas to properly appreciate the significance of the ritual. Inside again Shaun Armstrong's film Things Are Queer was mainly a photographic animation, a series of still photographs strung together to make a jerky motion picture in a similar matter to Between You and Me by Patryk Rebisz. The effect was spoiled slightly by a "making of" documentary afterwards in which the artist explained, in uneccessary detail, how the effects in the film were achieved. Some things are best left unsaid.
As the evening wore on, and I grew more and more under the influence of Dallas, I saw less work and participated in more drunken chatting. Eventually the studio closed down for the night and we headed, en masse, to Dulo, where I sat beneath the angels in the beer garden and took photographs of any and every stranger passing my way.
