Part of Spring 1996
All family histories are made up of emotional baggage carried through the years. In the case of Matthias Müller and Daniel Reeves, their histories, and the images that evoke them, have become the source of exorcising a past held in check by false recollections.
“In Final Cut (1986) Müller exploits Super 8 as the medium of individual memory and the stuff of handmade manipulation. The emphasis is on found footage, especially home-movies, as the source for images which the filmmaker fuses and transforms. The medium is used to express the essence of personal relationships in Final Cut, where the filmmaker literally has the ‘final cut’ with regards to his father’s home movies.” (Barbara Scharres)
‘Assembled over a period of five years, Scots-based American-born video artist Daniel Reeves’ latest video, Obsessive Becoming (1995) turns a courageous personal exorcism into a visionary meditation on the psychic legacy of our darkest of centuries. Unraveling a turbulent family history through photographs that reveal little of the bigamy, child abuse and mental illness that went on behind them, Reeves uses multi-image techniques to confront this interior storehouse of pain, hoping that by naming the hurtful milestones on his own troubled journey, he©öll find the ‘clear song of one whole life’. Most powerfully however, he takes this inner accounting beyond the merely private realm to confront, through the over-laying of historical archive footage, the sufferings of so many , many children in the era of mechanized mass destruction.’ (Trevor Johnston)
Notes:
Obsessive Becoming
Family Histories by Matthias Müller & Daniel Reeves
Final Cut, Matthias Müller, 1986 Super 8, 12 min.
Obsessive Becoming, Daniel Reeves, 1995 video, 54 min.
All family histories are made up of emotional baggage that we carry through the years. In the case of Matthias MŸller and Daniel Reeves, their family histories, and the images that evoke them, have become the source of exorcising a past held in check by false memories.
‘In Final Cut (1986) Müller exploits Super 8 as the medium of individual memory and the stuff of handmade manipulation. The emphasis is on found footage, especially home-movies, as the source for images which the filmmaker fuses and transforms. The medium is used to express the essence of personal relationships in Final Cut, where the filmmaker literally has the ‘final cut’ with regards to his father’s home movies. (Barbara Scharres, Chicago Film Centre Gazette)
Matthias Müller was born in Bielefeld, Germany in 1961. He studied with Birgit Hein and Gerhard Büttenbender at the Braunschweig School of Art. He has been an active filmmaker since 1980 and has completed over twenty short films which have been exhibited internationaly. Final Cut was awarded first place at the Festival Internationaldu Film Super 8 et Video, Montreal, 1987 and at the Verden Short Film Festival. His 1994 Alpsee will be screen at Images ’96.
Daniel Reeves describes his video Obsessive Becoming ‘as a surreal autobiography that became a vehicle for looking deeply into the problems of growing up in a highly dysfunctional family’. Gathering together a wealth of visual material – 16mm home movies taken by his stepfather Milton, photographs from relatives in Minnesota – Reeves uses computer-generated images to merge the past with the present forcing a reconciliation with one’s own history.
‘Assembled over a period of five years, Scots-based American-born video artist Daniel Reeves’ latest offering turns a courageous personal exorcism into a visionary meditation on the psychic legacy of our darkest of centuries. Unraveling a turbulent family history through photographs that reveal little of the bigamy, child abuse and mental illness that went on behind them, Reeves uses multi-image techniques to confront this interior storehouse of pain, hoping that by naming the hurtful milestones on his own troubled journey, he’ll find the ‘clear song of one whole life’. Most powerfully however, he takes this inner accounting beyond the merely private realm to confront, through the over-laying of historical archive footage, the sufferings of so many , many children in the era of mechanized mass destruction. (Trevor Johnston, Time Out Magazine)
American-born artist Daniel Reeves has worked in sculpture, installation, film and video since the early 1970’s. His seventeen videos to date focus on personal, political and spiritual themes, from socially condoned violence to the divine nature of existence. Reeves’ Buddhist convictions shape not only his content, but direct his commitment to ‘revitalizing the scared in art’.
Obsessive Becoming was funded by Channel Four, BBC; The NEA Media Program; New York State Council for the Arts; The Rockefeller Foundation Media Fellowship Program; Art Matters Inc.; and The Scottish Arts Council. Dan Reeves is the recipient of many video awards, among them three EMMY’s for Smothering Dreams (1981).
(Thanks to Michael Hoolboom for suggesting the titles for tonight’s program )
