The Cornerhouse Manchester

Unspooling Exhibition

Harald Smykla

Pictographic shorthand notations of a film, created in real time while Smykla watched it, drawing a kind of reverse storyboard. Sequences of swift line drawings chase one another like words written on a page. It is the capturing of a film, in this case, Nick Roeg' film Insignificance, through live drawing. The work is also a live performance. Smykla uses an overhead projector, showing his personal and physical interpretation of the film in visual language. Towards the end of the film, signs of exhaustion, stress and relief are significant in the notations as the performance lasts the length of the film.

I really like Smykla's work, similar to Wearing's photographs, the viewer is able to connect to the artist as the notations show his personal thoughts and interpretations of the film. What can the viewer understand from the notations? Did Smykla enjoy the film? What was his analysis of it? I also like how it is a live performance. The usual passive process of watching a film becomes an active one. The notations reminds me of hieroglyphic style drawings.

Elizabeth McAlpine

McAlpine has taken single film frames of actors with their eyes closed in an iconic Frank Stella painting. The artist is showing the repetitions and gestures that are inherent in popular media.



Elizabeth McAlpine
Hyena Stomp
2006
C-print on plexiglass, 180 x 180 cm



Harald Smykla
Movie Protocol
2010
Pen on Acetate