This is a reflection on two seminal video works: Vertical Roll by Joan Jonas and Ritual in transfigured time by Maya Deren
1) Vertical Roll (1972) - Joan Jonas
The characteristics that mark this work out for me:
The movement and use of the vertically shifting frames, the fragmented and zoomed in images or parts of the body and the way the "wholeness" of the body is challenged is what makes this work stand out for me. I also find the duality of repetition and ephemerality of each image interesting. Each image lasts briefly but at the same time is repetitive. The gradual movement of one image to another with the image building gradually is an interesting element.
What I found interesting about this work:
I see it as a kind of a vertical kaleidoscope. New images appear and is initially abstract and as a viewer I am trying to identify what it is but as the frames keep moving in the loop/vertical roll, the image keeps building and I am slowly able to identify the abstract form. But just as I begin to identify it, it begins to shape shift again, making the identified image obscure again. I find this interesting because it engages me actively whilst the repetition of the sound and shifting frame creates a trance like experience.
Potential improvements:
I think experimentation with sound could provide another layer to the repetitive movement of the roll to create a dynamic within the piece. Sounds that either build on top of one another yet fragmented in order to not influence or create an aural narrative.
The use of the camera and the relationship between the camera and performer:
During the end of the video Joan Jonas enters the space between the vertical roll and the camera. This for me breaks the illusion of the body being behind or on the screen/vertical roll. Her head in front of the roll brings her body to the foreground, charging it with a different, more powerful position as opposed to the fragmented, close ups that the video features throughout. I also find the movement of the images with the moving roll interesting, it also shifts horizontally in space. And in the end the artists head moving diagonally across the frame completes, for me, the movement of the elements in space.
Link to the work: https://youtu.be/jpstpzBDJ7s
2) Ritual in transfigured time (1946)- Maya Deren
The characteristics that mark this work out for me:
This work stands out for me because of its use of freezing the moving image especially before the movement is completed. The fragmented storytelling and the dream-like fluidity that the characters and plot has is an interesting characteristic for me.
What I found interesting about this work:
I particularly liked the way the idea of oppositions emerged- the moving body vs the frozen image, fluidity of the body vs statues, positive and negative film. I find the choreography of social life as they drift through space coming in contact with one another and past each other- meeting yet not fully investing in any one person. The turning, rotation and leaving and entering the frame with this quality of movement was interesting to me because it resonates with this need for connection that human life is constituted of and the constant occurrence of its interruption and interference within it.
At every meeting point, I would expect a dance to break out among the social gathering/drifting but it would not occur so I found it interesting that the dance or the final personal engagement actually occurs outside this social space and in the open space where architecture plays an interesting role in creating a dynamic force between the two characters of the man and woman.
The use of the camera and the relationship between the camera and performer:
I particularly like the camera angles and movement when the human body and architecture was framed together. Compositionally, the framing of performers with the camera was interesting in the social choreography where different characters entered and left the frame and at the same time different characters took the foreground and background thus creating an interesting fluid depth of field.
Link to the work: https://youtu.be/0IG5K65gkTU