In Studio with Brutus

Messing around in the studio.
photographed by Sam, check his other work at:
http://www.samuelzide.com/

Tryptic: combined

So I finally figured out how to combine the two videos to make it easier to watch... hope this reads more fluidly.

Negative Gestures

This one cast shows a portion of a new series of sculpture made from the body. The gesture acts as a mold which creates unsymmetrical, seemingly random forms from the overlapping symmetry of the body. The negatives (the casts) are surprisingly detailed and after a little photo shoot in the Matthew Chaves studio, I will be posting them as well. I have always been interested in the gestures of the body, and how speed, pressure, etc have such an effect on the marks that are made. But in this series, the gesture is held still and instead, the most apparent quality is not the trace of an action, but the tactility left by the skin which resembles a topography or a weathered find, which within the photos becomes scaleless.

Canvas / Stretching

Finishing Touch: The stretching of the piece is always the most interesting with these particular works. Often for the entire duration of the making I have an imagined orientation for the drawing, even from the beginning when I start pleating and folding the canvas. Its unavoidable, the canvas a series of folds creates lines which forms a composition in itself, but stretching the canvas out often hides the dominance of the folds and combines the drawn patterns as the predominant form. Every time I finish stretching, I stand only to rotate the canvas or flip it and find its the perfect position, like seeing a completely fresh/different drawing. I think filming the stretching process reveals what I always wanted to see, which is the shift in progress. Hope you enjoy. Best,

Play these two simultaneously....

Part 1 reveals the beginning of a series of three paintings. They each share two of the three prints made from gestural marks, divided down the middle. Up till this point, the gestural marks that defined the contours of the bodies existed on the same surface. So I wanted to show the printing process rather than a folding and pleating process. When watching this video, I thought it would be interesting to play simultaneously with Tryptic: part 2 to get the bookends of my painting process.

Part 2 retraces the same approximate shots of Tryptic: part 1, but after the works are in their finishing stages. With some added Cash

Quarry: Weight and Repetition. Perspective on a Vertical Plane

A self-filmed, site specific video based on the body's interaction with the materials of the quarry, part 2. Through the perspective of the camera, the objects are placed in a line along the edge of the cliff, but filmed within the distortion of the camera's lens to reveal the true position of the camera. Through the body's engagement and suspension of the stone can the point of perspective be revealed due to the weight / gravity.

Lead (stacked). Lines and Topography

Topography: I was struck earlier, mainly between what seemed to fit for the title of this little video. I was stuck between typography and topography. On one hand topography seemed obvious due to the angle of the camera and way each areas of drawn lines between the will be sewn pleats read as an undulating ground of some map, or the worn tears in dark stockings over skin. However, typography seemed more relevant to me, because each area of drawn lines has its own type. On the top left exists an arrangement of lines following the logic of lightly carefully drawn lines spaced as closely as possible, but on the middle right the lines are drawn fast and darker. The language is the same, but the articulation of the gestures evokes something different for each quadrant. Therefore, do I go with topography that relates to image, or typography which implies process and gesture? Luckily, for the youtube-blog combo I can squeeze out of this jam...do both, and have something to write about.

I'll post the finished image of this drawing on:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mylesbennett/

Quarry: Weight and Repetition. A Perspective on a Horizontal Plane

A self-filmed, site specific video based on the body's interaction with the materials in a quarry outside of Providence. Through the perspective of the camera, the objects must be placed in a non-rectilinear geometry in order to complete the square within the distortion of the camera's lens. Only through the body's struggle or easy taken with the stones, which where extracted from the site, can weight and depth be perceived.

Drawing on Canvas: 'Lead (stacked)': Initial Pleating