| Human Emotion Project | Melbourne

Guildford Lane Gallery. Melbourne, Australia. At the launch screening of works by Australian artist Neil Howe and a reading by Meg Oakley Australian Art Review

_ poster by Adamo Macri  Canada Drawn together by the art that they share via the internet, artists with disparate cultural and aesthetic identities approach the internal workings that exist in all humans. Emotions are inherently difficult to explicate. How does one describe fear? We know it when we feel it but how can we share, through the paltry use of language, our experience of it? Moving images, mostly embellished with sound, extend the expressive possibilities beyond what can be accomplished through language or even static imagery. By employing the largest palette of creative possibilities, film and video artists from around the world strive to externalize those complex driving forces that we all enjoy and endure and that bind us, as humanity, together despite our differences. The project was initiated and it is managed by South African artist  Alison Williams. It was born online, an art web site and artist networking site to which all of the artists involved belong. Democratically organized, individual artists are seeking real world venues in their home countries for a work that, even a few years ago, would have been a logistic impossibility.

| neil howe Australia | meg oakley – Australia | glenn church UK | anders weberg Sweden | cristina valenca limeira USA | bill millett UK| mads ljungdahl Denmark |alison williams RSA | debbie douez Spain | jose drummond Portugal | niclas hallberg Sweden | robertina sebjanič & nika autor Slovenia | tatjana de luxe Germany | wilfried agricola de cologne Germany | adamo macri Canada | michael chang Denmark | alicia felberbaum UK | alberto guerreiro Portugal | ulf kristiansen Norway | christy walsh USA | manfred marburger UK | dave swensen USA | daniel chavez USA | masha yozefpolsky Israel | behjat omer Kurdistan, UK | hakan akcura Sweden | osvaldo cibils Uruguay | mike hinc UK |tristan mory France | richard jochum NYC USA | irina gabiani Luxembourg | simone stoll Germany | wilma kun Brazil | anna jaros Poland | anthony elliot UK | vienne chan Hong Kong,Canada | sue pam-grant RSA | michael ebert, axel ebert(Ebros) Germany (for Faticart Group) | gaia bartolini Italy | nicole rademacher USA |

Read about some of the artists taking part in  HEP Melbourne 2009

,,,, alison williams, ZA Cage- panic 2009. 2″35′ alison williams, ZA red yellow blue 2009. 3″38′ Panic is a sudden fear, which dominates or replaces thinking and often affects groups of people or animals. Panics typically occur in disaster or violent situations, which may endanger the overall health of the affected group. The word derives from the Greek panikon, “pertaining to Pan”, the god of woods and fields who was the source of mysterious sounds that caused contagious, groundless fear in herds and crowds, or in people in lonely spots. We are all caged by our own devices and panic is a state common to most humans, be it self-induced or other. (wikipedia) i painted my face yellow then blue then red – it was early morning,after  i turned the telly on, and was revolted at being human. some days emotion is overwhelming – especially if it is television induced. human cruelty – what we are capable of doing to each other, words fail. such cruelty. …. Glenn Church (Neophyte Capsule), US Fragility 2009. 5″33′ Ulf Kristiansen, SE The Abyss 2008. 8″ Utilizing small scale models, ‘Fragility’ analysis the human condition of isolation, (both mental and geographic), emotional breakdown and separation. The viewer is presented with a series of rooms, in which the ever present television projects the hidden inhabitants state of being; echoing the increasing dilapidation of the rooms as the video progresses. From the fragility of our anatomy and mortality, to the fragility of our notion of ‘self’, the notion of ‘home’ becomes a panopticon for voyeuristic self destruction. A convicted rapist and killer is about to executed. The day before his execution he wants  to warn society about the dangers of violent pornography. If this is a heartfelt concern of a man who wants to do at least one decent thing before he dies, or if this is just a last attempt of a psychopath to manipulate his surroundings have to be up to the viewer to decide for him/herself. The movie is made in a combination of machinima, animation and found footage. …. Niclas Hallberg, SE Crying Man 2008. 01″23′ Debbie Douez, ES Sadness 2008. 02″18′ This piece was first shown, during 73 days, at the 9th International Biennale for Miniature Art in Serbia 2008. It’s concerning the sorrow over nonexistent human rights, and a deep personal grief of insufficiency. Men must dare to let the tears out, dare to show their weakness and act less bold and overconfident. Sadness is the examination of the human emotion sadness very up close and personal.  How much of that emotion can be transmitted by only looking very closely at the human eye.  With very little else to characterize the emotion, an emotion without context, without a story, without tears or a face, can the viewer actually feel, actually sense the sadness and the delicacy of that emotion expressed solely by a human eye?

…. Hakan Akcura, SE CATHARSIS 2008. 05″17 ‘ dave swensen, US Until Death Parts Us 2007. 01″19 Gamla Stan is the center area of Stockholm. Oldest and more touristic zone of the city. Other side of the Gamla Stan subway station is seeing inland sea, have a nice panorama but trashy…  When I recorded some scenes at this area a few young men which were high came up to me and wanted to do “rap” in front of my camera. I said: “Okay!” and recorded them. I was only a recorder and a witness. All big cities in Europe need this kind of purification. Immigrants could help. I’m sure. English, Arabic & Swedish; no subtitles Until Death Parts Us focuses on commitment and the relationships we make and build throughout our lives.  There is beauty to be found in all of them.  The connections and commitments that we make to one another are undeniable and amazing. …. mads ljungdahl, DK The Source of Emotion 2009. 01″43′ Daniel Chavez, US self examination 2009. 02″39′ Approaching the subject Human Emotion opens for a myriad of possible ideas and associations in ones mind. In fact the thought alone triggers human emotion. It’s everywhere – it’s what we all live in day in and day out. Still emotions are a non material matter that easily slips through our fingers when we try to hold and describe them. In the video The Source of Emotions I’m combining the suggestive influence from the music and imagery with a somewhat scientific point of view. My work essentially deals with the concept of existence. Existence in two parts: Being and Not Being or as I phrased it: Nothing or Something. The recordings that I have made are representations of not only myself but also of all others around me. …. Adamo Macri, CA One Onion Canon 2007. 05″ 51′ Anders Weberg, SE Dejected 2008. 01″15′ In 1946 film critic Nino Frank first applied the term film noir to some of the films Hollywood was producing during the period. Discussions of noir often centre on visual and specifically cinematic elements such as chiaroscuro, extreme camera angles and expressionist distortion. Both literary and cinematic noir are defined by the shifting roles of the protagonist, the ill-fated relationship between the protagonist and society, generating the themes of alienation and entrapment. In Macri’s works SLIDE and One Onion Canon which involve both video and photographic pieces, he attributes the idea of noir as a filmic mise en scène approach to portraiture. Sad and depressed; ORIGIN late Middle English (also in the sense [overthrow, abase, degrade] ): from Latin deject- ‘thrown down,’ from the verb deicere, from de- ‘down’ + jacere ‘to throw.’ Oxford American Dictionary

…. Neil Howe AU GENESIS 2006. 10″34′ Bill Millett, GB The Book 2008. 06″46′ Genesis is a 10 minute journey from the big bang to Armageddon via a series of sound and vision segments that I call BODYSCAPES, that is, landscapes of the human body and it’s social condition. These BODYSCAPES are created in the computer through a process whereby photographic images of the human body, either photographed by the artist or sourced and collaged from the public domain, are transformed into a simulated landscape that is richly varied in form and texture. The work is premised on three quotes. _ Bertrand Russell “ We speak of faith when we wish to substitute emotions for evidence”. _ Arnaud Alaric during the siege of Beziers (1209) when asked by a crusader how to tell the Catholics from the Cathers when the city was taken. To which the Almaric replied: “Kill them all; for the Lord knoweth them that are His”. _ Voltaire “Those that can make you believe in absurdities can make you commit atrocities”. …. osvaldo cibils uy after big bang before big crunch 2008. 03″43′ wilma kun BR Reality Perceived 1# 2009. 6″10′ A brief synthesis of human existence. What is the Reality of the Things? What are the relationships created among the human being, the things and the situations that you meet? These are some questions that in the Series Reality Perceived, I have been searching. What is the limit between that I perceive as reality and that it is really real? …. Irina Gabiani LU Samaia or Triamazikamno 2007. 06″21′ Alberto Guerreiro PT Transcendent 2008. 04″30′ Samaia is the title of a Georgian Traditional Folk dance, performed by three women united in the dance in harmonious way. Triamazikamno is a word created by George Gurdjieff in his ‘Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson’ to signify that for anything that happens in the universe, three forces must be present: a positive force, a negative force, and a neutralizing force. The work follows the Ägon and Tanatos complex as they were taken by the philosophy of Nietzsche and the psychiatric analysis of Freud. This way the work evokes the metaphysical (Nietszchean) and erotic (Freudian) universe living the limbo between two worlds: real (human) and hyper real (ghostly). Aesthetically is a tribute to the primary horror movies like the Danish masterpieces “Häxan” by Benjamin Christensen or Carl Dreyer’s “Vampyr”.

… Jose Drummond PT The Narcissist 2007. 02″57′ mike hinc GB Red River (Of My Heart) 2008. 02″57′ Too much choice brings us concerns of unhappiness, of not having things, of not being content with the results of what we choose. Expectations and not perfect experiences cause us to abstain from making decisions rather than making a complicated one. Many times in life we learn what we want by experiencing what we don’t want, however many times we don’t realize what we don’t want until it arrives. And often it arrives with many qualities and attributes that we adore. River (Of My Heart) is a warm, running reverie of images entwined with the entrancing musical washes of XP3 – a mystery wrapped in ethereal mists. This is the Pathetic Fallacy turned in on itself – a necklace of memories, a pantheist’s daydream that both reflects and catalyses the landscape of that most precious and elusive of human emotions – wonder! …. Christy Walsh US Isolation 2008. Vienne Chan HK CA Port-a-cath 2008. 03″45 Isolation is study of a room and its sole occupant. Most of the windows are barred, at times the sun barely seeps in enough for a consumer grade camera to capture an intelligible image. The camera drifts in and out of focus, follows the contours of the room’s angles and records the minute movements of the room’s owner as she lies abed. The port-a-cath is a small medical appliance that is inserted below the skin with a catheter that is surgically connected to a vein; it is often used to deliver chemotherapy. Sometimes, a port-a-cath can be found in the bedroom with pigeons outside the window. …. Anthony Elliott GB Get a Job (no.2) 2008. 01″54′ Manfred Marburger GB AGONISED 2009. 02″54′ A systematic representation has been created from a viewers event. “Get a job”, was recorded by Air Your Views (a interactive listening sculpture). The film was made at a recently closed cement factory by the River Thames. An extremely slow drum and bass rhythm marches on relentlessly while a girl in a white dress rolls “… AGONISED…” on a bed clutching some naked dolls. She succumbs more and more to her emotion, her movements at times coinciding with the beat. My intention was to keep the video ambiguous by not suggesting a particular reason for the girl’s emotion, in order to allow it to be viewed on different levels.

……..
Michael Chang, DK Concerto Azzurro (Blue Concert) 2009. 06″ 10′		Simone Stoll DE Crazy Lonely 2008. 04″40′
Set in a monochromatic black and white at a table representing an grand piano, Concerto Azzurro could be seen as an analogy of life’s odyssey. On the keys the complete spectrum of emotions are spelled out. Symbolizing life as a path we walk the keys are played with the feet. As the act is being performed, we witness all kinds of emotions being played. In the end the tune fades out in to a delicate blue color .		Comprehension of the physical body is intertwined with mental equilibrium. I had to unpeel layers of self-protection and defeat self-denial. New boundaries had to be defined. I seek to unveil and find images of mental and physical, vulnerability, of female identity and sensuality.