INSIDE THIS ROOM . . .
______
A Master’s Exhibition
of Mixed Medium
Presented
to the Faculty of
California State University, Chico
______
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree
Master of Fine Arts
in
Art
______
by
Erin Kelly
Spring 2012
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The body of work included in my culminating thesis exhibition was made with the support and guidance of my committee, chaired by Eileen MacDonald, Nanette
Wylde, and graduate coordinator Cameron Crawford. I'd also like to extend a thank you to my family for their support as well.
iii TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
Acknowledgements...... iii
List of Figures...... v
Abstract...... vii
INSIDE THIS ROOM . . .
Introduction...... 1
Content and Methods ...... 2
Audio...... 2 Prints ...... 3 Photography ...... 4 Books ...... 5 Video...... 6 Record Players ...... 7
Influences on Content ...... 8
Conclusion ...... 9
Endnotes...... 11
Bibliography ...... 13
Master’s Exhibition...... 15
iv LIST OF FIGURES
FIGURE PAGE
1. Inside this room . . .; Panoramic installation photograph, (dimensions variable) Spring; 2011...... 16
2. “Musical Memory: Record 1:Mary with Echo”; Custom clear vinyl record, (dimensions variable) Spring; 2011 ...... 17
3. Inside this room . . .; Installation photograph, (dimensions variable) Spring; 2011...... 18
4. “Musical Memory: Mary with Echo”; Clear vinyl record, 12” diameter; Spring; 2011...... 19
5. “Key”; Photo etching, 18”x18”; Fall 2010...... 20
6. “Mary Falling”; Photo etching, 18”x18”; Fall 2010 ...... 21
7. “Look Up!”; Photo etching, 18”x18”; Fall 2010...... 22
8. “Mary Spinning on Carousel”; Photo etching, 18”x18”; Fall 2010 ...... 23
9. “About to Jump into the Sidewalk”; Photo etching, 18”x18”; Fall 2010 ...... 24
10. . “. . . in the magic garden”; Photo etching, 18”x18”; Fall 2010...... 25
11. “TV Time Machine”; Photo etching, 18”x18”; Fall 2010...... 26
12. “Reverse TV Time Machine”; Photo etching, 18”x18”; Fall 2010...... 27
13. “Sesame Street Suitcase”; Photo etching, 18”x18”; Fall 2010 ...... 28
14. “Rainbow Brite Splatter Suitcase”; Photo etching, 18”x18”; Fall 2010 ...... 29
15. “Chipmunk Punk 1”; Photo etching, 18”x18”; Fall 2010 ...... 30
16. “Chipmunk Punk 2”; Photo etching, 18”x18”; Fall 2010 ...... 31
v FIGURE PAGE
17. “Chipmunk Punk 2”; Photo etching DETAIL, 18”x18”; Fall 2010...... 32
18. “Inside this [Barbie] house…”; Digital book cover, 7”x9”; Spring; 2011...... 33
19. “Musical Memory: Layered Sounds”; Custom vinyl record with Inside this [Barbie] house; Book, (dimensions variable) Spring; 2011...... 34
20. “Portal Corner”; Fisheye photographs in bubble glass frames and book, Will it Go ‘Round in Circles?, (dimensions variable) Spring; 2011...... 35
21. Will it Go Round in Circles?; Digital book with magnifying glass, 12”x12”; Spring 2011 ...... 36
22. “Portal to Inside this room . . .”; Digital photograph in bubble glass frame 14”x14”; Spring 2011...... 37
23. “My Happy Thoughts”; Digital fisheye photograph, 14”x14”; Spring; 2011...... 38
24. “Rainbow Brite Corner”; Digital fisheye photograph, 14’/14”; Spring; 2011...... 39
25. Inside this room . . . ; Installation photograph, (dimensions variable) Spring 2011...... 40
26. “Scene from Rollerboots Movie”; Installation photograph, (dimensions variable) Spring; 2011...... 41
27. “Rainbow Songs Re-Recorded on Slide TV;” Custom vinyl record...... 42
28. Inside this room . . .; Installation photograph...... 43
29. “Slideshow of images on TV”; Custom made filmstrip that plays on light box...... 44
30. “Musical Memory: Rainbow Songs Re-Recorded”; Custom vinyl record...... 45
vi ABSTRACT
INSIDE THIS ROOM . . .
by
Erin Kelly
Master of Fine Arts in Art
California State University, Chico
Spring 2012
This culminating exhibition for the Master’s of Fine Arts in Art degree
displayed a wide range of media including printmaking, video, and photography
integrated together to convey an exploration into how childhood memories can affect
aesthetics and perception into adulthood. The toys and records used as source material for the work connected my personal history to the audience’s through shared popular culture
references such as Mary Poppins, Sesame Street and Rainbow Brite. Use of distorted sounds and photographs symbolized how memories can fade away and blur over time.
Prints and books were shown alongside a separate video projection room, while custom vinyl records played on three vintage children’s record players placed throughout the space. Sounds changed for viewers as they moved around the gallery and the songs connected to what was seen in the prints exhibited on the walls. In the center of the room all of the audio pieces combined creating a distorting and confusing sound. The sensory stimulating installation engaged viewers through sound, sight and touch. Magnifying
vii glasses were available for viewers to look closely at the prints and books. They enhanced the dense visual information within the photographic imagery revealing hidden surprises.
Juxtaposition of black and white with color captured a fading and letting go of the past.
viii INSIDE THIS ROOM . . .
Introduction
Nostalgic objects like old toys from childhood can trigger memories of stories
forgotten, or perhaps invented altogether. Because of this childhood environments have a
lasting impact on subconscious thoughts, desires and aesthetics that continues into
adulthood. My thesis project investigated this concept through the use of photography,
printmaking, video and audio recordings to document the repetitive rearrangement and
repurposing of objects collected throughout my life. A few years ago I rediscovered toys,
records and books from childhood that had been packed away for the past twenty years. It
was therapeutic to confront these relics of the past because they connected me to my older sister Megan, who passed away in 1997. We shared a room while growing up and
her playthings became mine as she outgrew them. For this reason we have a shared
history through these objects. Many people can relate to loss and longing for an
inaccessible past. This work deals with the act of letting go through the recreation of key
memories.
As I began this re-examination of childhood records and toys, my studio space
transformed into a child-like playroom. The objects in it became props for photographs
and performances that I captured on video. While doing this I tried to emulate the
mindset of a child, because children have the ability to completely disassociate from the
real world and pretend to be someone else, somewhere else or their future self. The
1 2 pretend scenarios they act out require complex thinking and the ability to visualize what is not there or real.
When I rediscovered and listened to these albums I was taken back in time to my old house, a place I can hardly remember. I instantly recalled the lyrics to the songs and the order of them on the records. This ability to anticipate sounds based on our previous experiences is called “musical memory.” The phenomenon occurs because music is stored in our long-term memory, which allows us to recognize a song we have not heard in many years, even by hearing a single note of it. This concept of “musical memory” inspired the title of a series of records produced for the exhibition.
Content and Methods
Audio
From the larger scope of childhood memories, I chose to focus on the record
collection for my culminating thesis project. The thirteen original records used as source
material spanned three decades of iconic children’s music from American popular
culture. Among these were Sesame Street and Disco Duck albums from the 1970’s, as
well as Strawberry Shortcake and Chipmunk Punk from the 1980’s. I re-recorded from
these albums to create three new one-of-a-kind vinyl records of distorted and layered audio. I emphasized the collection’s oldest record from 1963, a Mary Poppins album with
an illustrated storybook inside, the most recent from 1983, “Rainbow Brite: A Color
Symphony” and “Paula and Carole in the Magic Garden,” from 1979. In the gallery
installation, the arrangement of prints shown corresponded to the time line created
through the audio playing. 3
While researching for this project I found lyrical connections to music I listen to now. This led me to believe that they were influential in developing my passion for music. For this reason, the audio pieces created layer these songs from the past and present. The record titled Musical Memory: Layered Sounds layers a song from childhood containing the lyrics, “Happy makes me clap…,” with a “Phish” song with the lyrics, “We want you to be happy, this is your song too.” The merging of the two was symbolic of the past’s influence on the present.
Prints
At the beginning of this process, as I listened to the albums while recording them, I arranged and photographed shrine-like set ups with the records and toys in my
studio. Chipmunk Punk 1 and Chipmunk Punk 2 (Figures 15, 16) for example show a
“Strawberry Shortcake” doll laying on top of a child-like sketch of that same curly haired
doll. Other objects within the setting include a Rainbow Brite album cover and a
Strawberry Shortcake clock. Hovering above the setup was a Chipmunk Punk record with
a doll comb on it. In staging this scene I created a world where all of these memories of
the past could exist in a newly constructed world in the present. The photographs taken to
document these ephemeral arrangements were shot as inverted negatives in black and
white. This inversion created a dark, sinister like quality that reflected the somber,
bittersweet mood these objects evoked for myself.
The constant rearrangement of objects was symbolic of the ephemeral nature
of memory. With the inverted photographs that document these arrangements, a portfolio
of thirteen black and white photo etchings were created to accompany the three custom
records in the exhibition. I chose to use intaglio printmaking because of the tactile quality 4 it allowed for while creating and printing the plates. I was able to spend time with the images and reflect on the memories associated with them both from the past and my new re-encounters with them.
Photo etching is an intaglio photographic printmaking process using “Image-
On Film” to expose high contrast photographs onto printing plates. I used this specific print technique because the nature of my process degraded the quality of the original photographs providing me with a distinct look ideal for the subject matter of memory.
There were challenges in achieving the desired results using the photo etching process that I had to overcome. To get the perfect exposure time in order to achieve a full rick black, I had to do several tests in preparation of the series. It was important that the prints had a rich black velvety quality to the ink. This deep black was contrasted with the bright white “Somerset Velvet” paper the portfolio was printed on.
The use of black and white images for the photo etchings represented the way that young children do not see in color for the first few years of life during which time they are drawn to high contrast images and patterns.1 For this reason it made sense to
present the recreation of early childhood memories this way.
Photography
I was also influenced by the idea that children are able to start forming memories around the same time that they begin to see the world in color.2 To reflect this
concept I juxtaposed the black and white prints with photographs saturated in color.
These photographs were different than the photographs used to make the photo-etchings
however they showed the same objects arranged within new settings. I also appear in
many of them, which I do not in the black and white prints. My inclusion in the 5 photographs, as well as the shift from black and white to color, represented the passage of time that had taken place over the course of doing this body of work. The photographs were enhanced using Photoshop to saturate and alter the colors. Inverting them produced complementary colors. This related to the phenomenon known as “afterimage,” people tend to recall the complementary color of something instead of the actual color. For example, I remembered having a blue Fisher Price record player as a child, but I actually had an orange one. The installation included both a blue and an orange version of the same Fisher Price model I had as a child.
Books
The collection of photographs taken during this project were organized and
divided into three books. They show the various ways in which I have repeatedly used
these objects and connect the different elements of my show together.
The first book seen upon entering the gallery, titled From, Inside this Room,
(Figure 2) contained photographs based around reconstructed memories from childhood
and still video images borrowed from popular culture references including The Wizard of
Oz and Jem and the Holograms. The merging of the two showed how my own memories
are influenced by the shows and movies that I watched as a child.
The work shown in the second book titled, Inside this [Barbie] house . . .
(Figure 18) represented a different direction working within this world of reconstructed memories. These objects existed only through images that became substitutes for the actual toys I once had. The black and white photograph on the cover showed a Barbie
House remembered from my childhood bedroom. Here the original identity of the image has been stripped away without the vivid, bright colors shown inside the book (Figure 6
19). One of the videos shown in the projection room with the same title brought the images in this book to life for viewers.
The third book titled, Will it Go ‘Round in Circles? (Figure 21) contained a series of brightly colored fisheye photographs. It documented my final interaction with the records and toys before putting them away for good, symbolically letting go of the past. “My Happy Thoughts” (Figure 23) from that series, showed me examining them as I put them away. Other elements of the installation such as prints and record players could be seen within these photos as well. A magnifying glass placed beside the book allowed viewers to closely examine these visual connections. In the same corner outside of the projection room (Figure 20), three images from this book were shown in round bubble glass frames that looked like portals into a colorful world.
Video
In the video works shown in the projection room, I acted out significant yet vague memories that my mind kept going back to. The videos also demonstrate the way that my actual experiences have blurred with aspects of popular culture from my childhood. I combined re-enactments of key memories with footage from my family’s
VHS home movie collection and television shows that I watched as a child. I became obsessed by one tape that was missing from our home movie collection, a video of my sister playing Dorothy in her 8th grade production of The Wizard of Oz. The video
performance piece titled “Dorothy in the Desert” was a response to this obsession. In the
video I am dressed in the Dorothy costume my sister wore. I slowly walk alone through
the vast Black Rock Desert humming the tune, “Somewhere over the Rainbow.” This
played on a loop with the video. 7
Another video project titled, Roller-boots Movie (Figure 26), used footage found on one of the VHS tapes of me filming my sister rollerblading for the first time outside of our former home. Before starting this project I had not seen video with my sister or heard her voice since 1997; so watching this was a very powerful emotional experience. To recreate this memory, I was filmed alone out in the Black Rock Desert, roller-skating. The colorful documentation of this cathartic performance was layered with the black and white footage of my sister rollerblading, bringing us together in this way.
Record Players
The three record players used in the installation were found on E-bay. As
mentioned previously two of them were the same version of my old Fisher Price record
player, one in orange and one in blue. The third record player used (Figure 29) reminded
me of one my grandparents had kept at their house for when I brought my records over. It
was unique because it looked like a small television with a record player on top. On it you could you watch a slideshow of images that went along with the record being played.
For the exhibition, I created a custom slideshow of color photographs to play on the
television screen for viewers that would give another glimpse into a colorful world. The
one-of-a kind record it played titled, Rainbow Songs Re-recorded on Slide TV layered
songs from a Rainbow Brite album with the song “Somewhere over the Rainbow,” and
audio from my family’s home movie collection. This related to the Dorothy in the Desert
video piece within the projection room as well.
8
Influences on Content
New media formats such as photography and video naturally lend themselves to time based work and work dealing with memory as a subject as they serve to record moments of time as they pass. The immediate nature of these formats enables artists to document ephemeral works and performances. Working with this mindset, I relate to female contemporary artists and filmmakers, Pipilotti Rist and Georginna Starr. They both seek to recreate moments from their pasts and in doing so create new histories through the layering of time. These two artists also seek to recapture memories from a time they no longer have access to. The result becomes a collective memory or history with the audience who share common source information from popular culture.
I related to the work of Pipilotti Rist during this project because her mixed media installations allow her to work with a wide range of media including video, photography and performance. Rist is interested in the way memory affects our views of present moment.3 She often works with multiple screened video installations that lead
viewers to rooms within rooms. Her work ranges from being provocative and erotic to
melancholic and sometimes humorous. Subjects are amorphous and over lapping. The
camera is an important tool for Rist because it allows her to record what the eye sees. She
uses it to document ephemeral performances and often captures her own body in the
process. She creates a hypnotic dream like quality that is aural and visual in her
installations. Underlying all of her work is a continuous examination of the technological
effects of our screened lives.4 Rist asks viewers to reconsider the traditional belief that
dead and past mean gone and vanished. She believes that history and memory will be
transformed by technologies of the present.5 9
I discovered the work of Georgina Starr when I began making records and books and felt an immediate connection to her process. In her work she explores the relationship between history, biography, fiction and memory. 6 She too produces one-of-a
kind records with custom artwork and makes self-published books that serve to
contextualize her process for various projects. Attempting to extract meaning from
collapsing realities, she makes complex and obsessive investigations into invisible, lost
and fragile phenomena.7 In 2010 she exhibited I am a Record, with over 80 custom vinyl records each with unique cover artwork.
Something interesting takes place in the work of these two artists when a fictional story is acted out, making the invented story a reality. The documentation of this is what the viewer ends up seeing, not the private performance. Being denied this direct access parallels how memory functions as a secondary source.
Conclusion
The body of work created for Inside this Room merged together different media and conceptually different times, the past with the present. It allowed me to explore the concept of reliving memories of a happy childhood at a time when I needed to let go of my sister. Through use of photography and video I was able to document the private interactions that took place with the objects that connect me to this past I longed for.
The stark black and white photo etchings shown alongside brightly colored videos and books, together signified the before and after effect that creating this entire body of work has had on me. Since completing this project, I feel like I have finally let go 10 of the desire I had to cling to tapes and objects that connected me to memories of my sister. Instead I learned that in order to move on as a person and as an artist I had to in essence go back to where it all began, childhood. This cathartic process gave me insight into my own aesthetic development in relation to early childhood. I have a better understanding for why I am drawn to certain types of music and imagery. By embracing my obsessions and confronting painful memories, I gained a sense of closure to a chapter of my life that I was stuck in. I also learned that there are other artists, such as Pipilotti
Rist and Georginna Starr who are interested in where our mind’s source material comes from, and why over time actual memories seem to blur with those from popular culture and pretend play scenarios remembered from childhood. Creating this work has reinforced my memory while allowing me to spend time with the past that I obsessed over. It is a past that is a fusion of real and false memories and experiences I can never really relive, both happy and sad.
ENDNOTES
ENDNOTES
1. Kristen E. Lyons, Simona Ghetti, & Ceasare Cornoldi, 2010. “Age Differences in the Contribution of Recollection and Familiarity to False-Memory Formation: A New Paradigm to Examine Developmental Reversals.” Developmental Science; 13, no. 29, 355-62. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2009.00889.x
2. Ibid., 355‐62.
3. Phelan,Peggy, Pipilotti Rist, (London: Phaidon Press, 2001), 34.
4. Ibid., 87.
5. Ibid., 55.
6. Georgina Starr [Artist’s website], http://www.georginastarr.com/ mainmenu.html (accessed November 30, 2010).
7. Ibid.
12
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Eschrich, Susann, Thomas F. Münte, & Eckart O. Altenmüller. “Unforgettable Film Music: The Role of Emotion in Episodic Long-Term Memory for Music.” BMC Neuroscience, 9. http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2202/9/48 (accessed April 12, 2011). doi:10.1186/1471-2202-9-48
Georgina Starr, [Artist’s website] http://www.georginastarr.com/mainmenu.html (accessed November 30, 2010).
Lyons, Kristen E., Simona Ghetti, & Cesare Cornoldi, 2010. “Age Differences in the Contribution of Recollection and Familiarity to False-Memory Formation: A New Paradigm to Examine Developmental Reversals.” Developmental Science; 13, no. 2, 355-62. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2009.00889.x
Phelan, Peggy. Pipilotti Rist, Phaidon: London, 2001.
Riemschneider, Burkhard, Uta Grosenick, & Lars Bang Larsen. Art at the Turn of the Millennium. Koln: Taschen, 1999.
Ross, Christine, 2000. “Fantasy and Distraction: An Interview with Pipilotti Rist.” Afterimage, 28, no. 3 (Nov) http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1- 68660257.html (accessed April 12, 2011).
14
MASTER’S EXHIBITION
TAYLOR ART GALLERY
SPRING 2011
FIGURE 1. Inside this room . . .; Panoramic installation photograph
16
17
FIGURE 2. “Musical Memory: Mary with Echo”; Custom clear vinyl record From, Inside this Room . . .; Digital Book
18
FIGURE 3. Inside this room . . .; Installation photograph
19
FIGURE 4. “Musical Memory: Mary with Echo”; Custom vinyl record
20
FIGURE 5. “Key”; Photo etching
21
FIGURE 6. “Mary Falling”; Photo etching
22
FIGURE 7. “Look Up!”; Photo etching
23
FIGURE 8. “Mary Spinning on Carousel”; Photo etching
24
FIGURE 9. “About to Jump into the Sidewalk”; Photo etching
25
FIGURE 10. “. . . in the magic garden”; Photo etching
26
FIGURE 11. “TV Time Machine”; Photo etching
27
FIGURE 12. “Reverse TV Time Machine”; Photo etching
28
FIGURE 13. “Sesame Street Suitcase”; Photo etching
29
FIGURE 14. “Rainbow Brite Splatter Suitcase”; Photo etching
30
FIGURE 15. “Chipmunk Punk 1”; Photo etching
31
FIGURE 16. “ Chipmunk Punk 2”; Photo etching
32
FIGURE 17. “ Chipmunk Punk 2”; Photo etching DETAIL
33
FIGURE 18. Inside this [Barbie] house . . .; Digital book cover
34
FIGURE 19. “Musical Memory: Layered Sounds”; Custom vinyl record with Inside this [Barbie] house; Book
35
FIGURE 20. “Portal Corner”; Fisheye photographs in bubble glass frames and book; Will it Go ‘Round in Circles?’
36
FIGURE 21. Will it Go ‘Round in Circles’? Digital book; with magnifying glass
37
FIGURE 22. “Portal to Inside this room . . .”; Digital photograph in bubble glass frame
38
FIGURE 23. “My Happy Thoughts . . .”; Digital fisheye photograph
39
FIGURE 24. “Rainbow Brite Corner . . .”; Digital fisheye photograph
FIGURE 25. Inside this room . . .; Installation photograph
40
FIGURE 26.. “Scene from Rollerboots Movie;” Installation photograph
41
FIGURE 27. “Rainbow Songs Re-Recorded on Slide TV;” Custom vinyl record 42
FIGURE 28. Inside this room . . .; Installation photograph 43
FIGURE 29. “Slideshow of images on TV”; Custom made filmstrip that plays on light box
44
45
FIGURE 30. “Musical Memory: Rainbow Songs Re-Recorded”; Custom vinyl record