Artist Lecture: Su Friedrich

Based on the artist lecture from Su Friedrich today, I just wanted to write down a few observations and opinions based on what I saw in the presentation. I feel like she was really well spoken, and seemed like the majority of the audience really liked her work, but to be honest with you, there was very few things about her work that I liked. I felt her videos were a little too abstract for my taste, it seemed like she was explain some aspects of her films, give the audience a taste of what it was about, but when she showed the film, i was completely lost. The imagery within the film appeared really scattered and unconnected. As a respected artist, I don't feel I should hate on her work the whole time, there were some things i did like. I liked the color film she showed that was entitled "rules of the road", the music was really good, upbeat and fit well with the time period that was portrayed in the film. The opening title was really nice too, I like how she did the letters on the cards to spell out the title, it was really original and also played on the idea of being alone. It gave foreshadowing to the game of solitaire she had talked about prior to the viewing. I also feel the game of solitaire also contributes to the idea of loneliness, as it seemed the film was about a past partner she had. I can't remember when she had filmed the video, but I did want to say that I liked the color throughout the film, gave a very retro feel to it, a lot of different elements play on the feel of the film, she executed in a lot of different ways that gave you the sense of 1980s which i enjoyed.

The other film I liked was the tree house fantasy, where two girls were in a tree house and one had discussed what happens when you "do it", which I thought was pretty funny. I don't really want to go into detail about exactly what was said, but it was a humorous touch and got me a little more interested in her work, after the first few films I was pretty uninterested in her work, but after those 2 films, I had more respect for what she was doing. I dont necessarily feel that I am hating on their work, more just not understanding what is going on within the film, whenever I feel lost about the dialogue or narrative, I find myself drifting away and usually ignore other qualities of the work. I feel her earlier works were a lot more experimental and off the wall, which is probably why I had a tough time understanding her work, the later work she was showing seemed to be more finished to me, possibly because they had a narrator and music, which to me helps, especially when I feel a little lost about the issues discusses within the film, having that extra direction makes a big difference at times.