research: James Benning

still from video Ten Skies 2004

James Benning now converted to digital until recently known for working in 16mm film
hailed as the cinema's voice of the midwest
raised and studied in Wisconsin US
Policitally awakened during 1960s and participated in civil rights movements, friends drafted and died in vietnam.
This American artists work was suggested to me when I was working on my first project using video.
The timeless, meandering quality appeals. There is no trickery, fancy editing. He is filming what is in real time.
I feel these sorts of video and arts that are more contemplative are reassuring to me. Most of the artists I have been researching based on what their visual imagery is about have ended up being interested in zen, meditation and more calm and tranquil results in their works. This may not be so coincidental after all but it's a stark finding after looking into a number of artists whose biographies and interests stated in interviews raise similar preocupations: Agnes Martin, Ian McKeever, Bill Viola, Tapies etc etc the list goes on.
Part of me wishes I could create more political, engaging, bold, humourous light hearted or innovative work. I appreciate these elements in other peoples but ultimately I seem to return to what I'm drawn to and it's light, calm, abstracted elements that are probably obsessions as a way of coping from the frenetically paced and emotionally draining work that I do when not at college.


Bio:

 His philosophy of “landscape as a function of time,” and “Looking and Listening” (which is also the name of a course taught by Benning) is particularly evident in his films since 1999 in the form of fixed, stable shots


Benning's use of duration reflects his accord with Henry David Thoreau's passage from Walden, “No method nor discipline can supersede the necessity of being forever on the alert. What is a course of history, or philosophy, or poetry, no matter how well selected, or the best society, or the most admirable routine of life, compared with the discipline of looking at what is to be seen?”


Inspiration
artists:

 Bill Traylor, Henry Darger, and Mose Tolliver.

Gallery representation
neugerriemschneider gallery in Berlin


Sources:
http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/interviews/sight-sound-interview-james-benning
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWuDiSd09S4