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Introduction
Pipilotti Rist has been very significant in video art and installation media. She started making super eight films while she was still studying in college. Her works are generally very short lasting very few minutes and they usually have a lot of alterations in speed, sound and coloration. She basically addresses issues of gender, human body and sexuality. Contrary to the conceptual artist, she uses her colourful and musical works to bring a feeling of happiness and communicate simplicity. However her works have been considered as being very feministic by many art critics. In spite of this, her works remain magnificent and very inspiring. She has engaged in various aspects of the electronic media via the single- channels, recordings, installations and performances to express her ideas. In this way, she can edit, reedit, mix and reinstall objects, images and sounds to fit her mental picture.
Pipilotti’s Inspiration
Considering that the woks of Pipilotti are highly feministic it’s important to highlight what drives her into such creativity and ideas. From her previous interviews with media channels, Pipilotti revealed that she was brought up in a family that was theoretically feminist (Talen 23). As she recalled, it was only until 1972 that women were allowed to vote in Swiss nation. Her family comprised four sisters, her father and her mother who was a very strong woman; an inspiration to her (Rist 23). Furthermore she gave her a lot of feminist books to read and this shaped her way of thinking. At that early age she was not so much disturbed by the question of whether to be or not to be a feminist. On the other hand she only knows that she was for equality in terms of politics. She gave her support to the idea of equal opportunities for both men and women alike (Talen para 3). Equal salary, equal rights and equal treatment everywhere.
She did not have a boyfriend in school and liked body art and believed that media and human body were subconsciously integral to life. She admired video artists very much causing her work to be affected by that (Rist 23). Still, could the critics be too harsh on her? Does it mean an artist putting on a black dress in video is a black power supporter?
Having been labelled feminist, Pipilotti Rist’s work was reduced to a tag. In the 1980s, feminism was escalating and women body art evident even in history though it was more reticent concerning visual pleasure. Presenting idea of eroticism, sexuality and desire was very reserved since the issue of respect for women runs through sexuality and desire (Talen para 3). Even today affirmed prejudice for women goes through the same aspects. Looking at the “Pimple Porno” for instance, which is a single Channel video, is presented as a very simple parody of pornography and an effort to sensualise tradition. Rist argues that “Pimple Porno” and “I could not agree with you” videos are what women exactly need (Rist 23). Having been made during the time when debate on pornography was high, she claims that she uses the videos to make her point rather than talk about the pros and cons believed to be a result of pornography. She claims that women are not interested in seeing people make love but how it feels. Rist suggested that her videos and images help express what others feel, just like it would feel being inside someone’s heart (Rist 23).
Rist’s Interests
The interests of Rist in art were quiet interesting as she states that she wanted the women to feel what the other persons were feeling. Her images and video were intended to inspire hope (Rist 23). According to her, creating a pleasurable artistic work was not a very easy undertaking as it was very complicated and painful to create. In an interview with the Talen of the Moma museum, Rist claims that her motivation was pain (Talen para 4). She was very much drawn into art to bring out hope but does not make the pain very central to the work she does. In creating her work, pain is placed at the periphery and hope is at the centre stage. According to her, making some wild art does not imply she was wild (Rist 23).
Rist uses unique way of communicating her ideas through media. She is able to combine the history of art and recent mass tradition to come up with her own way of visual communication (Talen para 4). With this convergence, Rist cleverly explores the power of the peoples’ mind and the subsequent communication with the body and also the pervasiveness of human sexuality and its connection to mortality; and she presents reflective compassion and hope for the society (Rist 23).
Pour Your Body Out
As far as the content is concerned, Pour Your Body Out is perhaps one of the most successful pieces that Rist made. According to the Americans, it was introducing he art. A way of bringing the world very close, just right at the nose but in a very bold feminist manner. She also manages to do this while making the people to relax, stretch and feel more comfortable (Talen para 4). The pour your body out premiere in Britain was 25 feet tall and about 200 feet wide making use of very big space. It was installed with projectors while the seats were arranged at the centre of the room in the design of a Human eye and behaved in a manner that tended to conceal the speakers (Phelan 34). Then sound track produced was not so processed or was some kind of unrefined noises but an attention-grabbing musical score. The extremely slowed movement gives a monumental paranoma a changeableness that emphasizes the pool-like change of space (Phelan 34).
Trying to fit with rest of the works, these installations use some common manipulations. For instance, most of her images loose their horizontal and vertical holds, static transmissions, zigzag lines, varying speeds and rhythm (Phelan 34). 7354 feet as it was subtitled, Pout your body offered a very wide space with video, sculptural, and audio installations. This was a very nice way of transforming the simple atrium into an immersive landscape of immense imagery. The narrative in the imagery is abstract with a ten – minute flow which is poetic in its shortness and abstraction, contrary to longer videos (Phelan 34). The scope and concentration of the images ineluctably draw attention to the aesthetics of form; beauty, sublime, tarnished and monstrous.
The recurring themes in the works of Rist are creation of serenity and hope. Pour your body out was intended to inspire spiritual and corporal sense. In some sense, your body out differs greatly with other works done by Rist (Phelan 34). The square in Pompidou centre is very big, in fact bigger that pour you body out. However, they are very similar in other aspects (Rist 23). When working with very big spaces, it’s advisable to create a model first so that it helps to distil the figure that is to be created. Rist created models of most of the projects she had to install. It’s important to note that most of Rist’s work exploits sexuality (Phelan 34). According to her, nudity is just a philosophical human; when clothes are put on, a person is taken into social status, or other categories of social stratification. This is inspired by older art which she claims had abstract nude paintings and drawings. Due to her themes of sexuality, erotic desire and human body art, Rist’s work faced some kind of censorship in some countries including Hong Kong where only people above 18 were allowed to watch. In shanghai China; the videos had to be sent in advance for evaluation before her trip for authentication (Phelan 34).
A new aspect of pour your body out is yet to be revealed and it will be about conservation of environment. The images include a female ploughing for earthworms. The work deals with how the earth is being destroyed by humans and at the same time addresses how people think about hygienic behaviour. There is a real big inconsistency between the hygiene and real treatment of the world (Phelan 35).
Conclusion
Pipiloti Rist has been very successful in creating very provocative imagery in her art by use of deft diffusion and the advancing technology. She has also managed to use luxuriant palette to promote inventive multimedia installations. She has been credited as one of the prominent artists in today’s world. She is able to mix fantasy and the usual everyday life amusing activities and in a kaleidoscopic way explore women voices and bodies in the contemporary society to present finished art work.
Works Cited
Phelan, Peggy. Opening up Spaces within Spaces: The Expansive Art of Pipilotti Rist. in Pipilotti Rist, (Ed) Peggy Phelan, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Elisabeth Bronfen, Phaidon Press, 2001. Print.
Rist, Pipilotti. “Interview” with Hans Ulrich Obrist in Pipilotti Rist, edited by Peggy Phelan, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Elisabeth Bronfen, Phaidon Press, 2001. Print.
Talen Julie., Pipilotti Rist’s Pour Your Body Out. A journal of the Broke Screen. 2009. Web.
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