In the first pages of assignment one a question was asked:
WHAT IS ART? Art to me is an expression of human’s feelings that comes out in a lot of forms using different media.
Growing up in a country that ”Kallos” (beauty) in art had come into its peak in the Classical times I understood art like an ethereal sensation that creates masterpieces. After that, I realised it could be a lot more; A poem, a painting, a dance, a play, a movie, and so on.
Later, because of my daily job as a textile engineer I saw art in the concept of fashion as a whole.
Then OCA came in. Textiles, Script Writing. Two mediums so different between them but so intimate to me.
Finishing assignment one I can tell is a lot more.
Creative Arts Today will help me to explore them.
HOW THE WORK I’VE SEEN CAN RELATE TO MY IDEAS.
When I come across a work of art, after the time I spend to admire and think about the message that the artist wants to deliver, I have the desire to do something myself: I want to find my own path by attempting to express how I feel.
Through my OCA studies, I had the privilege to use many media. Media, I sometimes wasn’t comfortable working with, or means of expression alien to me. All this work was super affective on my textile engineering daily job. It helped my mind, but more than that helped me think out of the box, gave a different echo to my voice.
I don’t know how my new chapter will help me, or how it will boost my ideas up.
The only I know for sure is that it will give me the background to face and tackle challenges I face every day.
WHAT I HAVE LEARNED SO FAR.
It is an early stage really, but I can definitely say that the first assignment made me realise that is a lot more to explore and discover regarding the media to create a work of art. Another useful outcome is, by using different media you can have a different path in creating and expressing yourself like Noland Coley’s illuminated work , or Jem Finer member of the ”Pogues” who (besides the Fairytale Of New York) brought us the Longplayer.
It is really exciting to think that there is no limit to find ways to show what is inside you whatsoever.
Interpretation of the Battle of Orgreave
I was a young boy when I was watching the news about the miners’ strike back in 1984. Even though I was living in Greece that time, and it was considered as a British affair, the news was travelling around the world with a headline <<The government’s will to reduce miners union’s power >>. There were also videos of working class people in unity with plenty of enthusiasm protesting against the decision to shut coal mines down. It was their only way to protect their way of life. I can still recall icons of the police brutality tackling armless pickets; I strongly remember pictures of demonstrators being mercilessly hit by officers and ruthlessly dragged down the road only to be arrested later, horses charging at groups of people causing an absolute pandemonium.
Some would say that is a long lost memory now that stretches back four decades. A lot have happened since then. But all the conflict scenes were too strong to be forgotten.
My assignment, has brought the memories back by giving me the chance to look back and get a full glimpse of these incidents through a wonderful video work from an English artist called Jeremy Deller.
The film to me is showing events without taking sides. It is a documentary that is trying to depict an era and facts that happened a single day of the so called ”civil war” in the village of Orgreave. Amateur actors were trained to perform and act according to the role they were assigned.
The depiction of the events was a big shock for me. The re-enactment of the violent confrontation between riot police officers and the miners was so realistic that I literally thought that was the actual incidents. The work as a whole was very well thought: Miners were dressed in 1980’s dress code, with yellow union badges and stickers stating <<STOP THE PIT CLOSURE-SUPPORT THE MINERS>> and lots of pins, a common rock-punk revolution piece of paraphernalia back in the day: this is what young enthusiastic working class people would wear. On the other side, police officers in helmets gripping large shields when they were holding their assigned line, but then, when it was body to body combat, smaller ones were also chosen.
In order to give a more realistic approach of the true story, an open field close to Orgreave was picked as the main area to tape the movie, as well as the village streets. Shooting took place early in the morning, having a cloudy overcast background over the events to be staged, as well as to give, in my opinion, a melancholic view of the whole work. The film quality is equivalent to the video tape of the mid 80’s; it is a tape of a poor quality, but because the story is so powerful it actually adds on to the watching experience, making it stronger and original ; The cameras used were moving around, following the police officers and the protesters, transforming the viewer to an observer, a spectator, an eyewitness.
Another technical element that was very well thought is the editing, which is quite sharp; Re-enactment is interrupted by interviews of participants of the true events saying how much their lives have been affected since the 1984 riots: they were still carrying the burden within. People talking about the union’s loss had a bitter smile: they lost the battle and they have lost the war.
According to Deller, << the police officers had to form a line were the miners had to improvise>>. So, in a way, the amateur actors acting as the pickets were actually playing themselves. They got fully engaged in a short of redemption act to them. << Damage to one is damage to everyone>> they said. They were out there again protecting each other. Watching the video, I could clearly see the enthusiasm and the ‘’get together’’ spirit. Milkmen, plumbers, electricians, and others, all of them former miners, along with volunteers were united again to re- fight the fight, to re-protest and scream about their rights, shout out loud about a better life for their families.
After a while, having second thoughts about the film and the impact it had on me, I’ve noticed a twist I found really interesting. There were former pickets dressed as police officers: They had the chance to experience the same story but to live it through the eyes of their ‘’rivals’’, the eyes of their ‘’enemies’’. This reminded me a story written by a great Greek novelist, Nikos Kazantzakis (the author of Zorbas) called << Christ Recrucified>> (1954) which it is about a fictional Greek village in Anatolia under the Ottoman rule re-enacting the events of the Trial, Suffering and Death of Jesus every seven years. The interesting fact to read is that the people picked for each role were engaged and eventually followed the fate of the character they were depicting! It is really astonishing how the human nature works under certain circumstances and how much the attire and the side of the story chosen, can rule someone’s life.
In the closing scene there was a girl looking through a window, witnessing the bitter re-enacted fight, repeating the main motto: <<Miners United, Will Never Be Defeated>>. That was, in my opinion, the stronger message coming out from Deller’s study: If it wasn’t that film, nobody, accept the participants, would talk about the 1984 events any more: they would be just a wound that hurts every now and then, a pain that comes and goes when the weather changes. Now the dynamics have shifted. The miners were not the trouble makers, the enemy within. The history has been retold to mourn, to heal, but most important for the young generations to understand that such atrocities, such bitterness needs to be taken seriously and the phrase <<never again>> should be in the mouths of everyone.
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