Gopnik Loves Craft!

Lenny posts a short blurb about the Vox Populi show at DCAC and mentions the brief review penned by the hand of Mr. Blake Gopnik, Chief Art Critic for the Washington Post. I wanted to pull out most of the review for discussion:

One piece, however, manages to take a standard contemporary trick and get it absolutely right. A video called "Cocked," by Matthew Suib, pulls together various snippets of Hollywood footage that all depict a single theme -- as many other art videos have done over the past decade or so, to varying effect. In the case of "Cocked," the clips, each one lasting maybe a second or three, come from 10 classic spaghetti westerns, featuring stars such as Clint Eastwood and Charles Bronson. They capture a Hollywood gunfighter's trademark tics and gestures as he's about to kill: narrowing eyes, twitching cheek muscles, fingers caressing the grip of a six-shooter, a sneering smile or dead-fish gaze. Assembled into an 11-minute loop, these moments of almost static gesture feel like the endless buildup to the world's most hideous gunfight -- which we never get to see. There's a strange, almost sexual tension to these exchanges of sly glances between men. "Cocked," made in 2003 in reaction to the impending Iraq war, is about the pornography of violence. Or at least it's a teaser for it. [italics mine]

So, this particular "standard contemporary trick" warrants an exclusive write-up in the Post becuase it is done "absolutely right"? That sounds almost like a craft to me... the quality execution of a trick. Wait, didn't Gopnik recently bash the Portrait Contest at the National Portrait Gallery saying something along the lines, "high realism does not equal art." Gopnik would certainly agree that the works in the competition show are very well executed. Many exploit a "standard contemporary trick," namely, highly realistic paintings taken from photographs. So why does the work in the competition get blasted but not this video? Wait, I don't really need an answer to that one. We all know. Painting sucks, video rocks. Rah Rah Sis Boom Bah!!

Thing is, the video sounds just like Jason Zimmerman's piece that was shown about a year ago at Transformer. You remember... the repetitive clips of police chasing criminals. We didn't get to see the climax then either.

Here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to pull scenes from a few dozen action movies that show high speed car chases. Just before the climactic crash, I'll stop the film and move on to the next car chase. Repeat for approximately 10 minutes. Show it in a gallery and await the positive review from Gopnik. Can't miss, right?

Seriously, when will this "standard contemporary trick" fall out of fashion like painting?

Comments

[wwc]

This video, or one just like it, was in the Radius 250 show in Richmond last year.

3 Years ago Michael Oatman, an artist based in Troy NY, did one pulling together all the time-travel sequences in movies.

Both were cool to look at, but I think you're correct to ask why Gopnik thinks that even though it's a "contemporary trick" (I read that as "cliché"), its worth writing about.

Its funny, I believe he thinks he's really on the cutting edge with his knee-jerk support of video. Like he's cool or something because of it, and all the taunts make him more rigid.