Douglas Gordon & Appropriation

Two years ago I spent a summer at a museum to learn how to write journalistic pieces on Art as a form of critique or for informative purposes.

I didn't realize how much I had learned that summer, mostly because it was all so latent until I came to college and started learning about different aspects of art.

The exhibit was "Sympathy for the Devil: Art and Rock and Roll Since 1967,” a compilation of artworks in installation, video, illustrations and photographs that centered around Rock & Roll and music for the past 4 decades. A lot of it dealt with fantasy, it dealt with the transcendent idea of music, the self-indlugence of performance, the minds of musicians and the artists that wished to be musicians, the idolization of musicians, the parallel of going to a concert the way a devout Catholic attends mass every Sunday.

One of the most striking pieces was Douglas Gordon's clips from concerts, one from a Rolling Stones concert, another from the Cramps performing. They were bootleg videos shot by the audiences at these shows. The videos were slowed down to move at a glacial speed, the fast energy of the rock shows suddenly very considerate, slow and real. More easily felt, you could see the crowd and catch each individual motion because there was time for that.

They were all appropriated videos. In fact, his most famous piece is 24 Hour Psycho, a 35 second clip from Hitchcock's Psycho made to last 24 whole hours. His photographic work is also very similar with series of photographs in which the motion and changes between shots are subtle and almost imperceptible.

This reminded me of the talk the other day on appropriation of work and copyright. It's been in my mind lately a lot. I hadn't realized Gordon was one of these artist defying that idea as well (though not directly of course - not like Richard Prince).

That's all. Enjoy.