Portrait

Marcus Coates in front of a swirling green abstract painting wearing a red t-shirt and blue latex gloves

Untitled 2010 Darren banksThe film footage used in Untitled 2010 is taken from a film called Season of the Witch, also known as Hungry Wives, and Jack's Wife; George A Romero's third horror film.Filmed in 1971 and released in 1973, the film is about a lonely housewife who becomes involved in witchcraft. The protagonist, Joan Mitchell (Jan White) is the 39-year-old wife of a businessman. Joan has been seeing a psychotherapist because of her recurring dreams about her husband.I decided to loop together all of Joan’s dream sequences; I wanted to show Joan locked in a constant loop, trapped in limbo between a nightmarish dream and the stark reality of waking. More Importantly Within these dream sequences the reason for her increasingly terrifying nightmares seem to bare some relation to a small sculpture that sits on the dresser in her bedroom (1970’s kitsch statue of a bull “Picasso like figurine”). There seems to be a mystical/ supernatural relationship or connection between Joan and the figurine, which is never explained. The statue acts as a symbol or signifier of some other looming presence. The static object in turn becomes otherworldly and animated through its relationship to Joan in her subconscious state.I wanted this uneasy and looming feeling to follow through into the sculpture itself. This was achieved through the creation of a problematic relationship which exists between the materials and objects which seem to balance in a unrealistic configuration, an unsafe construction which towers over the viewer and seems, if only for a second, to defy logic and reason.

Untitled

In her recent series of works ‘Killing Time’, Catherine Bertola has filmed historic photographs of English Country Houses. Having fallen into disrepair or demolished some time ago, each of these interior spaces no longer exists. In choosing to film the lost settings, a medium associated with the 'live' or a representation of the live moment, Bertola re-animates the interiors, creating a haunting image where a lost past is rendered visible in the present. Within each interior Bertola has further superimposed her own image, re-occupying the historic spaces with her contemporary presence. The placement of her body swamped by the interior decor of the large rooms imbues the image with an immense sense of isolation. This isolation mirrors the presence of previous female occupants whose role within these lavish interiors echoed the decorative design of the room – a theatre set for their own display - their days spent sitting, sewing, 'killing time'. With Bertola's presence the interior settings, or sets become a haunted space - part historical, part contemporary, and always on the edge of the fantastical. This sense of the fantastical is further enhanced by Bertola's choice of presentation, using postcard sized film screens whose small format recalls illustrations from history and story books.

NADA Art Fair - Miami 2010
2 - 5 December 2010

Artworks

Darren Banks

Catherine Bertola

Related Artists

Eric Bainbridge

Marcus Coates

Laura Lancaster

NADA Art Fair - Miami 2010

NADA Art Fair - Miami 20102 - 5 December 2010