miniatures (from jhana and the rats of james olds), 2:01
miniatures (from jhana and the rats of james olds), by Stephanie Barber
A series of sentences read by museum visitors inspired by, and paired with, a number of miniature Elizabethan portraits. Words and paintings––each seem equally able and unable to represent a life. The man who reads the line “I think constantly about my coming demise” came through the exhibition several times and participated in a few different pieces. He is big, young, strong and confident. I had him read the line many times before he got it just right. I think it was hard for him to imagine a worry of this sort.—Stephanie Barber
Between June 25th and August 7th 2011 Stephanie Barber moved her studio into the Baltimore Museum of Art where she created a new video each day in a central gallery open to museum visitors. The goal of this project, entitled Jhana and the rats of James Olds or 31 days/31 videos, was to create a series of short, poetic videos in the playful and serious footprints of Oulipo games and daily meditations; creating one new video each day. The exhibit was both a constantly changing installation as well as a collaborative performance in which museum visitors were present as spectator and often creative partner. This video was created on the 8th day of this exhibit.
“I am thinking about the emphasis given to product over production, or display over creation. The piece is a video screening and an installation and a performance—a spiritual obeisance, an athletic braggadocio, a consideration of marxist theories of production (with the assembly line so lovingly lit). It is a funny game for me to play, an exercise in concentration, discipline and focus, an extension of my everyday. It is a greedy desire to squeeze a massive amount of work out of myself; a dare; a show I would like to see myself. It is like the backstory before the story, an inversion of the way we usually experience art work. A moving from the inside out. I was thinking how the interiors of museums are really only able to share what is almost the exterior of a piece of art work––and though this colliding of the interior and exterior is fuzzy––a step towards the interior of any art piece might be the making of that piece. I’m interested in the tedious and repetitive qualities of meditation and art work, the difference and similarities in these two practices. The practice and work of these practices––the dispelling of the so-seductive myth of artist as creating through a vague and florid explosion of inspiration––or perhaps interested in romanticizing the effort and challenging technical, logistical, practical elements of creation. The tedious as IT. Or one of the ITs. Like all pieces of art, this project is accordion in its intentions, shrinking and expanding upon use.”—Stephanie Barber
Stephanie Barber is a multi media artist who creates odd and imaginative films and videos as well as performance pieces which incorporate music, literature and video. She has had numerous solo screenings of her film and video work including shows at MoMA and Anthology Film Archives (both in NYC), San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center, Chicago Filmmakers and The Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. Her performances have been featured at the Baltimore Museum of Art, The Milwaukee Museum of Art, The Haggerty Museum of Art and galleries and artspaces around the world.
Her book poems was published in 2006 by Bronze Skull Press and her experimental essay FOR A LAWN POEM was published as an online chapbook in 2007 by Publishing Genius Press. Her book these here separated to see how they standing alone or the soundtrack to six films by stephanie barber was published in May 2008 and reprinted in 2010 by Publishing Genius Press. http://www.stephaniebarber.com/
part of the Counterpath video poetics series mt/time, series page here