- May 20th, 2009
- Filed under Art, Exhibitions, Film, Interviews, Public Programs
The Forefront exhibition Adaptation: Video Installations by Ben-Ner, Herrera, Sullivan and Sussman & The Rufus Corporation is being celebrated tomorrow night at the IMA with a talk with video artist Eve Sussman followed by a reception. Sussman is a leading figure in contemporary video art and has transformed the medium with her use of lavish production values and stylized methods of filming. If you are an emerging filmmaker, contemporary video art lover, or just curious, bring your questions. Tickets are free!
Guy Ben-Ner is another artist featured in the exhibition Adaptation. IMA Curatorial Associate of Contemporary Art Allison Unruh and I had the pleasure of asking Ben-Ner about his work earlier this year:
Interview with video artist Guy Ben-Ner
What first drew you to working in video?
When my daughter, Elia, was born I was still an undergraduate art student in Israel. I realized I could not spend much time in a studio anymore, with the demands of work, studies and fatherhood. I decided to work from home and include my cohabitants in my plans. To get a child involved with immediate video magic was quicker than working with marble and much cleaner than painting at home. Besides, for the narratives I started to be interested in, video seemed to me the best tool. I needed things that unfold in time.
In collaborating with your family on videos, how do you negotiate the roles of artist and father?
At the time, I worked hard to conclude that both are one and the same role – so I did not have to negotiate too much.
Your works in Adaptation take inspiration from Melville’s novel Moby-Dick and Truffaut’s film L’enfant sauvage (The Wild Child). Why did you choose to engage with these particular sources?
Moby-Dick was part of a few “sea adventure” narratives I was interested in at the time, partly for the escape they offer (you sail away, leaving the family behind) and partly for the Western mythology they take part in as creators. Truffaut’s movie interested me because I understood it not as a wild-child’s story but as a director’s account of what it means to direct a child actor – an act that can never be fully justified or moral. So I will not call them inspirations but rather tools that helped me tell my own stories in a fictional disguise. I used them rather than being inspired by them. But maybe that is the same thing?
For Wild Boy, you built a large-scale installation that echoes the set you created in your home where you filmed the work. How do you feel that this installation changes the experience of the video for the viewer?
It is comfortable. It suggests to you, the viewer, to lie down, relax and take your time – that’s it. I am usually not very found of video installations, and I can live with Wild Boy detached from the installation very peacefully. (View an excerpt from Ben-Ner’s single-channel video Wild Boy, 2004)
Can you tell us about the projects you are currently working on?
My next movie is being shot with the kind help of the people at Mass MoCA (Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art), where I will open a show [on May 23]. All I can tell you now is that it will involve a light airplane, a car, a double bicycle and two people. I hope that sounds intriguing enough.
