image/Word.not_a_pipe=
image/Word.not_a_pipe=
2004/05
A lone man in an overcoat and bowler hat is obscurely displaced as he dances on a deserted windy beach, over a grassy knoll and through a crowded street. The figure represents Magritte’s familiar symbol of the “Everyman.” Kinetic and fast, the film uses surrealist techniques including frames within frames, dynamic text, and familiar objects that float around the dancer — an apple, a pipe, an umbrella — to transform the image beyond the real.
The live dancer, represented by the same “Everyman,” also comments on the signifier versus the signified, the danced image versus the dancer. Michel Foucault’s text, “Ceci n’est pas une pipe,” is referenced by transposing words and images into code patterns from programming language in order to explore the distinction between similitude and resemblance.
The performative installation features three projections and a live dancer in an architecturally designed environment. Pre-edited segments or phrases of 16mm film referencing Magritte’s seminal image will interact with the performer — the same Man in the Bowler Hat, implying a conversation between the man and his image, or the signifier and signified.
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Incorporated into the installation will be a textual component inspired by code, transforming the meaning of words and phrases interpolated into the pattern of the installation. Inspired by and using patterns from HTML, Cold Fusion and Java, the code will incorporate new variables chosen to build on and newly explore some of Foucault’s concepts of the shifting meaning in Magritte’s images.
The trilogy of projections play off each other, further enhanced by the presence of the live dancer. Most of his movement is improvised, fitting in with the random and programmed code inherent to the media. In addition to the hypertext that floats through the image, time-code and key-code — acknowledged film references — are burned into the bottom of the image. As most of the 16mm film was shot in a composed yet spontaneous manner, the random character of the projected media and the dancer’s movements in relation to the images will complete the concept of improvisation that is inherent to both the media and the dance.
The film is a single channel exploration of Magritte’s seminal image and Foucault’s ideas transposed into code. Almost eight minutes long, the piece is composed in three parts, with each movement set in a different location: on a deserted windy beach, over a grassy knoll and through a crowded street. Fast and kinetic, the music drives the images and the hyper-speed of the editing. The use of multiple screens is used, referencing Magritte’s frame within frames. Viewed in a linear fashion, the film is a succinct and simplified version of the manifold imagery found in the installation.
