Carrie Schumacher
When we began to discuss this particular project, I immediately thought of all the art that I had seen in the past few weeks that claimed to deal with the topic of globalization. Many of these works have an element of geolocation, even if geolocation was not the main point of the piece. I began to wonder if geolocation is really synonymous with globalization, if an artist filming themselves in different location is truly representative of globalization or are they merely skimming the surface?
My approach to this project is a direct reaction to works by Mariko Mori and Kimsooja. Both artists, Mariko in “Beginning of the End” and Kimsooja in “The Needle Woman”, attempt to unite the world by photographing or taping themselves in different locations. I found this idea a bit pretentious as how can one person unify all the different peoples of this world? What does this have to say about the phenomenon of a truly global society? To me, their work seemed shallow. Photographing different locations does not describe globalization.
To address globalism, I looked to the instrument that has accelerated the process: the internet. I would not try to unite the world; rather I would construct a project that would create link between those who chose to participate.
So I put out a general call on Facebook. I asked users to think of something I could film and tell me where they were when they had the idea. I then would create videos about their ideas and tag the locations where the ideas were born . I view the videos as materializations of these ideas; hence it is appropriate to tag them where they were conceived. Where the footage that created the videos was obtained is somewhat insignificant in this process.
I believe that this project addresses two important issues within globalist art. Firstly, this project called for large group participation. While I put the opportunity out there, it was really left to other people to make it happen. And while their link may be somewhat tentative, these twelve people are united through this project. Their time and space have briefly been condensed as they all are sharing and contributing to this piece. I believe this to be a truer representation of unity then the one’s presented in Mariko and Kimsooja’s works.
Secondly, the ego of the artist is somewhat removed. Part of me is still in these works as I chose how to film and composite these ideas. However, I do not appear in any of these works. I also had no control over subject matter, and trust me, there were some things that were painful for me to film. I have tried to remove myself as much as possible so that my role is more as a vehicle or mediator for this unification.
My version of globalization may be just as unrealistic or superficial as either Mariko or Kimsooja. However, I hope my approach has at least provided a different perspective on globalist art. For me, the videos are somewhat irrelevant; surely there are some interesting visuals within, but really, the true art is the connection of these twelve people.
