Abstracts
Abstract
These still images and video are excerpts from the short film Wrought (2018). Wrought is a hybrid natural history/art film which uses innovative timelapse scanner videography to capture up-close and macroscopic views of rotting material. The subject matter in the film encapsulates the three categories of rot which we have chosen to explore for their significance to human notions of purity, morality, and society: to spoil, to ferment and to decompose.
Résumé
Ces images fixes et ces vidéos constituent des extraits du film à court métrage intitulé Wrought (2018). Wrought est un film qui mêle histoire naturelle et art et qui utilise des techniques de vidéographie novatrices numériques à effet accéléré pour filmer en gros plan et de manière macroscopique des matériaux en état de décomposition. Le film traite de trois catégories de décomposition que nous avons choisi d’examiner par rapport au niveau d’importance que revêtent chez les humains les notions de pureté, de moralité et de société : pourrir, fermenter et se décomposer.
Article body
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Hyperlink: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FSF4TNeOqw
Wrought Excerpt, copyright Joel Penner and Anna Sigrithur, 2018
These still images and video are excerpts from the short film Wrought (2018). The film’s title comes from the past participle of the verb to wreak, evoking the ideas of transformation and disgust which are central to the film. Wrought uses timelapse scanner videography to capture macroscopic views of organic materials in animated states of decay. The film proposes that “rot/wrought” encompass three categories of decay: to spoil, to ferment, and to decompose. These categories each deal uniquely with the abject, or the horror caused by the loss of distinction between self and other.[1] Food as subject matter can be seen as the civilized ‘self,’ separated from the ‘other’ which is seen as a kind of primordial nature and depicted as feminine, unruly and monstrous.[2] In rot, microbes and agents of decay threaten to make monsters out of everyday materials. In making this film, we aim to follow the lead of many feminist artists (Cindy Sherman, Barbara Creed and Sarah Lucas to name a few) who have challenged the classical renderings of women’s bodies as “pure” by deliberately depicting bodily parts and functions which society deems abject.
These transformations are distinguished by the way they move toward integration or abjection: Spoiling happens when food rots in a way we do not desire. Fermentation we define as food rotting in a way we do desire. Decomposition is when rot happens to something that is not food and therefore we have no emotional reaction to it. In Wrought, the spoiling of food symbolizes death and other abject changes to the body (puberty, menstruation) — funky smells, unpleasant textures and unsightly excretions. Fermentation is the acceptable feminine: a kind of rot that escapes abjection narrowly by instead becoming objectified for its aesthetic value — and even then only until it becomes too fermented. Finally, decomposition cannot become more or less horrifying because it is already undead — the primordial space before separation of self and other.[3] By using these simplified categories we attempt to answer the question, “can displaying rot in a context of beauty and/or art help the viewer challenge their own sense of loathing toward the abject wherever it is found?”
Appendices
Biographical notes
Anna Sigrithur is an audio reporter, food researcher, and artist whose work explores ideas and/or practices found in food history and culture, sensory perception, food preservation, microbiology, ecology, and intersectional feminism/body politics.
Joel Penner is a filmmaker who uses computer scanners to create timelapses of plants and fungi decaying, with the goal of inspiring people to see the unfathomable beauty of everyday existence. He has made numerous art films set to music using this unique footage. He has also hosted multiple artistic/educational video presentations highlighting the extraordinary worlds of common weeds, Canadian mosses, as well as conifers and symbiotic fungi. He has had showings of his work in both Canada and Europe. He currently does after-school programming and teaches photography with youth in Winnipeg's inner city.
Notes
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[1]
Julia Kristeva, Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection (New York: Columbia University Press, 1982).
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[2]
Megan Karius; Understanding Abjection: An Analysis of the Monstrous-Feminine in the Art of Cindy Sherman. 2011; Retrieved from: http://megankarius.com/academic-papers/abjection-cindy-sherman/
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[3]
Jamie Lorimer; Rot. Environmental Humanities 1 November 2016; 8 (2): 235–239. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/22011919-3664333
Appendices
Notes biographiques
Anna Sigrithur est animatrice radio, chercheuse en alimentation et artiste dont les travaux examinent les concepts ou les pratiques liés à l’histoire et à la culture de l’alimentation, la perception sensorielle des saveurs, la conservation des aliments, la microbiologie, l’écologie et les croisements entre les idéologies politiques sur le féminisme et sur le corps.
Joel Penner est un cinéaste qui utilise des scanneurs pour créer des images en accéléré de plantes et de champignons en état de décomposition, afin que le spectateur soit inspiré par la beauté inimaginable dont est empreinte notre vie au quotidien. Il a réalisé de nombreux films d’art sur fond musical en utilisant cette technique de tournage. Il a également présenté bon nombre de vidéos artistiques et éducatifs qui mettent en lumière l’univers extraordinaire des mauvaises herbes que l’on retrouve communément au Canada, des mousses qui poussent sur le sol canadien, ainsi que des conifères et des champignons fongiques. Ses oeuvres ont été exposées aussi bien au Canada qu’en Europe. Il s’occupe présentement de programmes parascolaires et enseigne la photographie à des jeunes des quartiers défavorisés de Winnipeg.
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Hyperlink: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FSF4TNeOqw
Wrought Excerpt, copyright Joel Penner and Anna Sigrithur, 2018