The Silent Dialogue of All Artworks
2012, 10 minutes
Winner of the Best Experimental Film at The 5th Singapore Short Film Awards
Winner of the Best Experimental Film at The 5th Singapore Short Film Awards Coming across more alike to installation art than a film, TSDoAA by Russell Morton, recent Master of Fine Art graduate from the University of the Arts, London, is both visually interesting as well as thoughtfully intricate. The 11 minute piece stars Helena Freitas, a lady with fiercely red hair, Barry Newton, an old man with a head full of white strands and an apple Snow White would die for. Shot in atypical dimensions, the film opens with the sight of the fruit staring back insolently, alluringly, at the audience. A few moments later, the lady emerges and caresses the apple softly and slowly, like a canine playing with its prey. As expected, she bites the apple after awhile and masticates the mouthful, the lens fixated on her face; emotive with pleasure gained from the fruit. A biblical allusion to the temptation of Eve in the Garden of Eden, into eating of the forbidden fruit? As if knowing that the audience will be drawn into the picturesque imagery presented, the lady steps back behind her, to the old man who is apparently sleeping. In slumber, he does not seem to realize that the lady is removing some of his clothing, exposing his neck, and it is almost understood that she will be biting into his carotid arties next. However, as with the apple, the lady strokes his flesh, as if she is calming the meat or blood before her consumption. There is no conclusion of the picture revealed to the audience; the final shot is a painting of the two people in semi-embrace, where the lady looks on intensively at the gasping old man. It is gleaned from TSDoAA that art is an idea which can be consumed; one may see the process through the entire piece- the sensation that comes from producing the idea, creating the art and outcome of enjoying it. Though the artist may give birth to the piece, he or she is absorbed into it and ultimately consumed by the art, as he is framed into the art piece. During the Q & A session, Morton also shedded some light on the fascinating title which also justifies the piece; that art forms, for example, poetry, has to inspire a person, before one writes a poem. Therefore there is no art that is original, and art thus goes around in a circle, within a collective process, so any art we see actually has a story, and that is the silent dialogue of all artworks.