The work of Austrian artist Mathias Poledna is informed by historical research, by archives and collections. His work investigates various diverse histories - avant-garde cinema, modernist architecture and design as well as the intersection of popular culture and art. His recent projects have taken the form of minimalist film reconstructions that suggest ephemeral moments in twentieth-century popular culture.
In Actualite (2001) Poledna attempts a quasi-ethnographic visual investigation of a moment in post-punk history, circa 1979. Western Recording (2003) moves backwards in time and shows a recording studio that appears to be from the 1960s and is very obviously located somewhere in the USA (it is in fact the former Western Recorders studio in Los Angeles where the Beach Boys produced their album Pet Sounds, first released in 1966). The camera position shifts between two static views - one inside the studio and one through the glass separating the recording and control rooms. Both show a singer performing a succession of takes of a song's vocal track.
By planting visual mnemonics Poledna suggests a specific moment in time, a style and a meaning, but allows the audience to complete the narrative, a strategy that collapses the distinction between production and reception, artist and viewer. In this way Poledna's work not only engages viewers but implicates them in the making of the work, for they are led to 'recall' (or imagine) moments they may not have experienced in reality.
Poledna's film work has sought to reflect minor yet emblematic scenes from the history of popular culture through blending research and reconstruction. His most recent project attempts historical specificity while withholding factual evidence, a contradictory and perhaps impossible notion. This relationship between historical background and what potentially could be an elaboration thereon, or variation thereof, lies at the root of Poledna's project for International 04.
Taking as one of his starting points the well documented interest in American soul music that has pervaded England since the late 1960s, Poledna has produced a new 16mm black and white film. Using contemporary performers, the artist filmed scenes in the semi-abstract, ahistorical setting of a Los Angeles sound stage-hence the high production values and extremely condensed quality of the work. The 'look' and costumes of the performers hint at a time between the late 1960s and early 1970s, whi their movements and gestures blend vernaci dance moves with vestiges of postmodern choreography from approximately the same period.
The 'controlled aimlessness' of the dancers Poledna's film, along with shifts between moments of stasis and motion, between improvised and staged forms of performance further amplifies the project's ambiguities ar subjects its viewers to continued uncertainty over what they are seeing-fact or fiction?
Adrian George
[LESS]The work of Austrian artist Mathias Poledna is informed by historical research, by archives and collections. His work investigates various diverse histories - avant-garde cinema, modernist architecture and design as well as the intersection of popular culture and art. His recent projects have taken the form of minimalist film reconstructions that suggest ephemeral moments in twentieth-century popular culture.
In
Actualite (2001) Poledna attempts a quasi-ethnographic visual investigation of a moment in post-punk history, circa 1979.
Western Recording (2003) moves backwards in time and shows a recording studio that appears to be from the 1960s and is very obviously located somewhere in the USA (it is in fact the former Western Recorders studio in Los Angeles where the Beach Boys produced their album
Pet Sounds, first released in 1966). The camera position shifts between two static views - one inside the studio and one through the glass separating the recording and control rooms. Both show a singer performing a succession of takes of a song's vocal track.
By planting visual mnemonics Poledna suggests a specific moment in time, a style and a meaning, but allows the audience to complete the narrative, a strategy that collapses the distinction between production and reception, artist and viewer. In this way Poledna's work not only engages viewers but implicates them in the making of the work, for they are led to 'recall' (or imagine) moments they may not have experienced in reality.
Poledna's film work has sought to reflect minor yet emblematic scenes from the history of popular culture through blending research and reconstruction. His most recent project attempts historical specificity while withholding factual evidence, a contradictory and perhaps impossible notion. This relationship between historical background and what potentially could be an elaboration thereon, or variation thereof, lies at the root of Poledna's project for
International 04.
Taking as one of his starting points the well documented interest in American soul music that has pervaded England since the late 1960s, Poledna has produced a new 16mm black and white film. Using contemporary performers, the artist filmed scenes in the semi-abstract, ahistorical setting of a Los Angeles sound stage-hence the high production values and extremely condensed quality of the work. The 'look' and costumes of the performers hint at a time between the late 1960s and early 1970s, whi their movements and gestures blend vernaci dance moves with vestiges of postmodern choreography from approximately the same period.
The 'controlled aimlessness' of the dancers Poledna's film, along with shifts between moments of stasis and motion, between improvised and staged forms of performance further amplifies the project's ambiguities ar subjects its viewers to continued uncertainty over what they are seeing-fact or fiction?
Adrian George
