Purple Television
Katerina Jebb TV Takeover
For this months Purple TV Takeover we invited artist, photographer, filmmaker, and Purple contributor KATERINA JEBB to curate a selection of videos. This exclusive takeover coincides with the opening of her L’Arlesienne show, curated byCHRISTIAN LACROIX and on view until September 21st, at the at Les Rencontres Arles Photography Festival 2014, Arles.
For L’Arlesienne Jebb was commissioned by Lacroix to portray the Arlésienne woman and has produced 47 new works following the theme of the exhibition, absence. The theme of the exhibition L’Arlésienne is taken from a novel written in 1869 by ALPHONSE DAUDET. Lacroix plays on this literary term meaning someone or something which does not appear.
After a car accident in 1991 that paralyzed her right arm Jebb resolved the inability to hold a camera by employing machines to make life-size images, primarily self-portraits lying herself down on a high resolution scanning machine. Progressively, she diversified, posing subjects and objects, exploring the medium in parallel with the expanding possibilities in digital technology. Jebb proceeded to remove parts of the scanner to facilitate maximum extension of the subject.
Jebb’s work has since flourished from its photographic origins, proceeding to disrupt the boundaries between mediums. Her photography has made way for video art, installations and sculpture. In her work, Jebb considers the human condition with arrant sensitivity, offering the viewer a depiction of women that rejects the normalized, commercial female role. This can clearly be seen in her film series Simulacrum & Hyperbole, which premiered exclusively on purple.fr. Twelve insightful videos, each a comment on advertising, illusion and utopian dreams, parodying contemporary consumerism.
The first video in this takeover is Kienholz On Exhibit by JUNE STEEL, a film that documents ED KIENHOLZ‘s “Back Seat Dodge 38” that was on show The Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1966.
[July 7 2014] : Television
Katerina Jebb TV Takeover / Kienholz On Exhibit (1966) by June Steel
“The first real work of art that I ever saw was by Ed Kienholz. I was about 22 and living in Los Angeles, seeing “Back Seat Dodge 38″ had a great effect on me and I still don’t know why.
This is quite an obscure film made in 1966 by June Steel about the viewer’s reactions to the work of Kienholz at The Los Angeles County Museum of Art.” – Katerina Jebb
[July 8 2014] : Television
Katerina Jebb TV Takeover / Oh What a Blow That Phantom Gave Me by Edmund Snow Carpenter
“Here is an excerpt from Oh What a Blow That Phantom Gave Me. Originally a book written by anthropologist Edmund Snow Carpenter, the film documents the male initiation of the Kandangan tribe in Papua, New Guinea. Filmed and photographed by his wife Adelaide de Menil between 1969 and 1970, it is fascinating and disturbing to witness the extreme procedure that the young male endures in order to be initiated into the tribe. Using the medium of photography and 400,000 feet of 16mm film in black and white, as well as color and infrared film, not only as pure documentation but with dual functionality of exposing the subjects to themselves for the first time. Moreover it... Read More
[July 9 2014] : Television
Katerina Jebb TV Takeover / The Mona Lisa Curse by Robert Hughes
“Robert Hughes was described as the most famous art critic in the world. Twenty four years ago I read ‘Nothing if Not Critical’, a collection of his essays from Time magazine. For me, Hughes’ writing possesses stark truth, distance, wit and irreverence but above all speaks clearly of his ability to psychologically penetrate the invariable nature of the subject.” – Katerina Jebb
[July 10 2014] : Television
Katerina Jebb TV Takeover / Heinecken Explains Heinecken by Phil Saveninck
“American artist Robert Heinecken made some of the most exciting works of his generation by manipulating mass media imagery. He founded the photography program at UCLA and was a teacher there for 30 years. His work asks questions about society, pushes boundaries between mediums and presents American culture back to itself as a humorous and distorted vision of dystopia.” – Katerina Jebb
This is a film by Phil Saveninck recorded in April 1988 at a conference of the Society of Photographic Educators in Phoenix Arizona . “Many pictures turn out to be limp translations of the known world instead of vital objects which create an intrinsic world of their own. There is a vast difference between... Read More
[July 11 2014] : Television
Katerina Jebb TV Takeover / Subjective Histories of Sculpture: Agnieszka Kurant by The New School
“I was introduced to Polish artist Agnieszka Kurant by the writer Allese Thomson at the Christmas brunch of Art Forum’s publisher Knight Landesman. We had a conversation about a French philosopher who strangled his wife and we became friends. Here is a film of a talk that she gave at The New School about her cross disciplinary approach to art creation. Kurant’s practice can be categorised under a conceptual aesthetic; investigating both visible and imagined dualities that have influenced social, economic and political systems of the contemporary world. Often engaging in collaboration with professionals or experts in diverse disciplines— scientists, inventors, or journalists– she seeks to explore gaps in logic that confuse and inform our... Read More
[July 12 2014] : Television
Katerina Jebb TV Takeover / Agnes Martin Interview (1997) by Chuck Smith and Sono Kuwayama
“The paintings of Agnes Martin emanate a powerful energy which you have to stand in front of to fully understand. She considered herself an abstract expressionist, favoring geometric structure of uniform bands of evanescent colour and hand drawing pencil lines on six foot square canvases. Art’s value for her was in its ability to counteract negative thoughts and emotions, promote psychic calm over chaos, and establish stability in a world of unpredictable and potentially shattering change. One of her lectures given at Yale university was titled ‘We are in the midst of reality responding with joy.’ In this video made in 1997 when she was 85, Agnes Martin tells us simply how she tries not... Read More
[July 13 2014] : Television
Katerina Jebb TV Takeover / A Documentary about Hugh Hefner (1963) by Showtime Shorts
“I have a life long obsession with Hugh Hefner to the point of asking him to sign a self portrait of my breasts, which he kindly agreed to do. This documentary shot in 1963 depicts a long lost world of decadence juxtaposed with poignant observations from those close to him, impossible to watch and not feel inspired to live more freely.” – Katerina Jebb
“Progress necessarily requires the exchange of outdated ideas for new and better ones. By keeping open all lines of communication in our culture, every new idea–no matter how seemingly perverse, improper or peculiar, has its opportunity to be considered, to be challenged, and ultimately to be accepted or rejected by society as a... Read More
