Zanna Markillie
There Was No Bridge Across
Film Duration: 12'30''
2017
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There Was No Bridge Across is a film made in response to a series of encounters that took place between myself and four clay male torsos. Each encounter took approximately 30 minutes and were filmed with both a static and roaming camera. I also recorded sound by attaching a small mic to my top, as I wanted to capture my breath and the physical contact with the clay. I made a series of films, each time becoming more experimental with my editing. Image and sound are brought together in a responsive and embodied way, and I use spoken word to accentuate the dialogue between myself, as woman and artist, and the clay male torsos, who represent man and material. I am interested in how the live event is interpreted and reconstructed through the mediated experience of film and sound - this film is visceral, sensual, passionate, aggressive, tender - it transmits the liveness and intensity of the real time encounter.
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Please refer to the There Was No Bridge Across page for further description.
Agency
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4 Sculptures, clay (unfired), expandable foam, 2017
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Dimensions:
Height: 70 cm
Width: 52 cm by 32 cm
These sculptures are the result of a series of performative encounters, which were filmed and recorded (refer to above). I have exhibited them alongside the films made, as I want the process and dialogue between artist and material to be evident. The clay is unfired, which means that the clay can be recycled and reused - in a sense to continue the process of making through encounter. The agency of the artist, the material and the encounter can be felt through the visercal and expressive marks. However, these marks loose vitality over time as the clay dries out, positioning the sculptures as past tense, which, in terms of agency is interesting - as we find agency only in the present - here and now.
Blood Mud Rub
Film duration: 3'30''
2017
Blood Mud Rub is a poetic film piece made in response to washing people's feet - as a means to come back to myself and to a connection between body, raw material and environment. I recorded sound with directional and contact mics, experimenting with how close to the sound and contact could technology get. I articulate the intimacy and agency of touch through the quick cheography of image and sound, creating an 'inside' experience for the viewer.
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The symbolic materials of blood, earth and water are juxtaposed with the modern materials of technology and concrete. Despite the contrasting worlds, the thread of connection and continuity is expressed through the feet, who traverse and permeate the boundaries of natural and contemporary space.
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Please refer to the Blood Mud Rub page for more information
Gestures
40 clay pieces, unfired.
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dimensions: approx 10cm by 5cm
These gestures were made as a means to reconnect with material post foot washing. I use my fingers and toes to imprint the clay, the gestures record this moment of contact. It was interesting to observe how the agency of the clay changed the disposition of these objects. At first, the clay being soft, they had a visceral fleshy, alive and vital quality, but as the clay dried they began to resemble fossils, bones, or historical or geological artefacts found in a museum that needed to be carefully exhibited.
Please refer to Blood Mud Rub page for further description.
Indigenous Body / Colonised Body
4 Film Pieces
2016
A Foot Wash
11'02''
2016
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First Encounters
13'49''
2016
The Gym
3'14''
2016
This Contact, This Doorway
20'47''
2016
My current body of work explores the dialogue and tension between what I have come to describe as the ‘indigenous body’ and the ‘colonised body’. The ‘indigenous body’ is about instinct, connection, inhabiting our animal body and the immediacy of lived experience, here and now. The ‘colonised body’ is governed by and submits to an outside agent, has value and place inscribed upon it by society and is fixed by history and hegemony, by this is severed from its natural environment. It is interesting to note that Indigenous does not have a verb, it is not an action. It just is. It originates or occurs naturally, and one might say it is our essential nature. To colonise is a verb – it is to establish power and control over what is indigenous. I believe the ‘colonised body’ and ‘indigenous body’ are interchangeable and have psychological components which play out in all of us. My overarching aim is to shatter and break what binds the ‘colonised body’ and to get closer in to what is indigenous, to what Julia Kristeva calls the ‘unnamable’ repressed by the ‘social contract’.
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I investigated the structures of human relating through the ritual of washing feet. Washing feet requires humility, intimacy and physical contact / connection that challenges the social construct of what is acceptable, especially within certain environments. The question of needs and how public and private space impact the body are central concerns in my practice - therefore I asked for participation in different locations, being particularly drawn to the workplace. The workplace can be seen to colonise the body to perform and produce, where personal needs are negated. I recorded each foot wash, the conversations and negotiations that led to the foot wash, the feet I could access and the feet I couldn’t. I made a series of films which can be seen as episodes in this body of work. The construction of ‘voice’, narrative and social / political critique were vital threads, as I situate the work within a wider discourse – agency, embodiment, need, vulnerability, empathy, anxiety and alienation are the core concerns raised.
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Please refer to the 'Indigenous Body / Colonised Body' page for more information.