Review: Alreadymade at Antenna Documentary Film Festival
Addy Fong reviewed Alreadymade at Antenna Documentary Film Festival. Here are her thoughts:
When Philosopher René Descartes uttered the now well-known phrase, ‘I think, therefore I am’ in 1637, he probably didn’t expect his words regarding one’s existence and thoughts on life to be transformed into absurdity, to mocked by pop culture, and adapted into potty humour through the phrase, ‘I think, therefore I shit.’ 💩
Perhaps, if we think about it, the perceived usefulness or uselessness of objects in modern society depends on context, audience, and the artist credited. Worth is placed on art dependent on the artist, which I’ll preface isn’t a good or bad thing, but perhaps something those of privilege should be aware of, whilst yelling into their own echo chambers of how great their life’s work is. I’ve personally found myself knee deep in the bowels of utter nonsense, questioning why I’m drawn to artistic absurdities and people, or ‘shituations’ in my life I cannot explain. I think perhaps when life provides you with absurdities you just need to laugh about it, create art, and move on. Humour is a wonderful thing we can find refuge in, and Barbara Visser is thankfully a hilarious documentary filmmaker and artist.
Barbara Visser’s documentary Alreadymade explores this absurdity, the ridiculousness of Modern Art and considerations of art in challenging audiences to rethink how they perceive the world, as art has often been created as a sort of rebellion to challenge social norms. Specifically, the film explores the existence of Marcel Duchamp’s well known artwork Fountain, touted as one of the ‘most important and influential pieces of modern art’ in 2004. Merely a porcelain urinal, signed and repurposed as a museum piece and placed in a gallery. Perhaps we should ask ourselves why. Tradies walking through a bathroom display showroom would have a field day upon visiting an art gallery, to see a common household object repurposed in such a way. The common man visits a gallery not understanding why a certain piece of work exists, and collectively pretends to perhaps, something I’ll admit I’ve done to avoid lengthy and seemingly intellectual conversation. Yes, I’m aware of my own stupidity and I’m both intrigued and confused by what Modern Art is. Duchamp, famous for his movements in Dadaism, Cubism, and Conceptual Art eras, created Readymades, ‘the idea that literally he could go to a store, choose an item and call it a work of art.’ Art history is wild and many modern art movements seem to be an ‘up yours’ to the elitist nature of art and its associated gatekeeping.
The supposed truthfulness of documentary or news sources, our belief in the validity and truth is often reliant on the words of experts, recognised people within their field, before our opinion on something can be formed. If enough experts speak to us there is a validity formed even if truth could be wrong because of our own echo chambers of who or what we choose to believe. A montage of expert voices overlaps and overwhelm audiences at the start of Visser’s film flooding out any chance you have in questioning or challenging the truth. Andrew Gallacher, from the Tate Modern is shown in a YouTube video speaking about Duchamp’s Fountain. He states, ‘The biggest question is, what the hell is a urinal doing in an art gallery?’ Visser’s presentation of Gallacher as the art expert, is somewhat made valid due to his presence or mere existence as white male in a collared shirt standing in front of a whiteboard. Whilst I understand the legitimacy of his knowledge can be validated through a simple internet search; a simple search online made me want to believe him. Perhaps Visser is asking audiences to consider why we tend to believe a white male as the expert in something more-so than a female or a person of colour. I write this as someone who identifies as the latter two with much hesitation and fear of potential backlash. I feel we really need to talk about this and how this is problematic. I also ask you to consider the validity of my use of ‘quotes’ in my writing thus far. I wonder if you believe me, and the legitimacy of my claims derived from the viewing of gathered quotes from Visser’s Alreadymade.
Like most things on the internet, things can be faked. As the threat facing modern art is that it is now in competition with computer generated AI, forms of fake news, misleading edits, and internet experts twisting the truth to gain popularity and views. Visser uses internet videos, as if secondary sources and presents them all from a distance, creating in the viewer a lack of immersion and suspension of disbelief in this film due to the abrupt nature of the edits and constantly shifting in her choice of visual medium used within the film, whether it be online content, screen recording, voiceover, or virtually generated avatars so what we choose to believe is up to us.
Visser’s Alreadymade is perhaps in itself a form of Dadaism, a visual piece created and ironic in its existence, challenging the interplay between art and philosophy where ‘the only goal of dadaism was to reveal the hypocrisy in meaninglessness within everyone including themselves.’ Do we believe in what labels say and what experts say if the supposed label or expert is lying? Perhaps the more absurd something is presented to us the more difficult we find it to believe. Visser juxtaposes footage of Duchamp with experts in body language able to recognise liars to create doubt and make us reconsider Duchamp’s supposed legacy. Socially engineered cognitive bias is collective, mass manufactured truths of which we can choose to believe in, something that could be associated with faith, trust, and peer pressure. Artists know full well that the art of the editing, of filmmaking of which I can speak briefly on, and of controlled perception or how art is perceived is something that modern art, Dadaism, ironically brings meaning to. I found myself drawn to a scene in the film where the experts on modern art met online in a virtual Starbucks to discuss the legitimacy of Fountain. When presented as birds, bodybuilders, bodybuilders, mushrooms, aliens, and bananas, their validity is questioned but the playful nature of this interaction including grabbing a virtual coffee before sitting together for a chat has a sort of manufactured charm to it. The avatars looked adorable and the playfulness of meeting together via an online game felt unique that I was willing to overlook any potential lies.
Alreadymade is hilarious, the film feels so absurd you can’t help but laugh. Visser cleverly weaves the ridiculousness of the worth society has placed on a urinal with serious considerations of art in the context of feminism, history and societal issues, and the worth we place on objects in labelling them as ‘art’. The hyping up of art with the phrase, ‘This is ART’ or ‘This changes everything’ seems like utter nonsense, but like any bowel movement it’s healthy to consider the movement of art as we circle back to the phrase, ‘‘I think, therefore I shit.’ Yes, I’m not beneath including potty humour in my writing here.
Visser’s documentary also brings to light forgotten artist Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, baroness and eclectic spirit, and perhaps the true artist of Fountain who remains uncredited for the famous Duchamp art piece. Properly crediting modern readymade art, store bought items recontextualised and exhibited in a gallery, is a challenge within itself. Perhaps it isn’t the work but the conservation it brings to audiences viewing it. Art is all about perception and, ‘transforming this object into a holy thing something you cannot touch, the definition of holiness, tells me there is something wrong in our society.’ Modern art is truly problematic and perhaps we too contribute to this problem.
Alreadymade explores the role of female artists in art, in particular Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven who, like many women have often been devalued and labelled as ‘emotional, out of control, crazy’ in comparison to men such as Duchamp labelled as ‘dry, witty, a chess-playing genius’ and ‘a hero of high culture.’ Visser paints a portrait of Freytag-Loringhoven, a female artistic genius, as someone supposedly mad, who ‘wore tin cans for a bra’ and was ‘shelved in cultural history under the rubric of eccentricity and madness.’ As ridiculous as it sounds, I understand her ridiculousness and desperation to perform in order to be seen. Freytag-Loringhoven said, ‘I am ambitious, even in utter despair. As a sort of stubborn resistance against fate. True death is wealth tremendous, but it has to be earned with life.’ Art making has links with life experience and the need to express oneself. Up and coming artists trying to establish a voice in an art space often fall into the trap of criticism whether it be of self or of others. Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, an artist in her own right but not as famous as Duchamp, ‘wasn’t written out of history, she was never written in it.’ Considering the potential of gatekeeping and exclusivity in the arts, the need to prove oneself to establish some sort of societal worth, amongst the other nonsense women need to deal with on a daily basis, it’s no wonder many women can become prone to fits of hysteria. I’m mad even thinking about it.
Society needs to acknowledge the desperation of women who have been for too long, ‘written out of the boys club of modern art.’ The sexualisation and objectification of women as acknowledged in this film and in art history confirm that women are merely tools for male artists, posing for the male gaze, and often forgotten throughout history. Alreadymade describes Freytag-Loringhoven as a rebellious spirit ‘terrorising the streets sometimes wrapped only in a Mexican blanket or brandishing a plaster cast penis’ in order to shock those around her. For many art is about performance and the ability to shock, the objectification and masculinization of the self, and perhaps for women, and the reclaiming of the female voice. If you need to brandish plastered male genitalia to be seen or noticed, labelled crazy and absurd, so be it.
Visser hires German actors to play a recreation of baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, ‘a woman once described as Jesus Christ and Shakespeare rolled into one.’ Depending on one’s belief, combining the description of both well-known historical figures of agreed cultural significance, we could conclude that Freytag-Loringhoven was a popular figure, the talk of the town, and of great cultural impact. The only caveat being, Freytag-Loringhoven was a woman. Much of modern society is now aware of history’s bias towards HIStory, our lean towards placing worth on men’s achievements rather than women is how hopefully shifting towards the latter.
I came away from watching Alreadymade with more questions than answers. So, what is modern art and what do we derive from the phrase ‘I think, therefore I shit’ said in relation to a highly controversial debate about a famous urinal made famous by Duchump in modern art movements? Are artists literally ‘taking the piss’ on audiences and critics gatekeeping a piece of plumbing that has somehow made a mark on the world due to its absurdity but validated by the supposed artist behind it? Perhaps ‘It’s one big circle jerk of pretentious twats ascribing meaning to something that’s completely meaningless.’ Perhaps this absurdity is that this famous urinal is credited to a man, or a woman, or someone else who was never recognised given the piece was a readymade, a found object, repurposed, and made valuable based on who they are. The film states that if the artwork was properly credited to Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, Fountain ‘the world’s first great feminist anti-war work of art’ would not have been as well known as Duchamp made it cause, ‘women are rarely granted such status’ and to me, that’s shit.
Alreadymade is screening Feb 11th and 18th, at Dendy Newtown.
Review by Addy Fong.
