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| Still from Cathy Cook's Immortal Cupboard:In Search of Lorine Neidecker (2009) |
This week the video and filmmaker Cathy Cook took time to visit our class while she is on sabbatical from UMBC's visual arts program. Cook's lecture included a great number of cinematographic terms with visual aids that were provided by Cathy through her work and the work of one of her students, Samya Amorim. Cook's piece, June Brides, prominently featured her two most lasting inspirations: women and nature. What I found most striking, however, was the use of sound and color. My experience with the piece left me pondering what the hysteria of weddings would do to life if we had to encounter it on a daily basis. Of course, there would be the initial emotional high, but then the let down would come with the end of the festivities. Cathy's use of disorienting camera work and dissonant music and sound effects, she created a darkly funny look into how women in our society are expected to behave. Her work really reminded me of Terry Gilliam's animations from Monty Python's Flying Circus.
While I rarely, if ever, work with video, I could still relate to what inspired Cook the most: namely women and nature. Her documenting of extreme personalities and egos of brides directly relates to my work that I'm producing this term. After focusing on formal qualities, my next step in my series of photos is to try and capture in photos the personae of individuals immortalized in stone.
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| © Hillary Rogers |
Hmm, interesting, I did not even think about color after I saw some of her pieces, but now that you brought it up she definitely does use color to enhance the meaning of her films, particularly in June Brides (colors very reminiscent of a horror flick). Just one more way in which her visit was very inspirational.
ReplyDeleteMonty Python was certainly in the air when Cook was a film student. It was broadcast on public television and captured something of the mood at that time. Let's ask her about it next time she visits!
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