Archive
2022
KubaParis
The Idealist and The Contrarian
Location
YAYA / viable.istanbulDate
04.02 –12.03.2022Photography
Eline TsvetkovaSubheadline
The Idealist and The Contrarian, 2016 - 2019, 16mm transferred to HD video, approx 33 minutes. Viable invited artists Matthew Burdis and Jon Baker to display their collaborative video works in YAYA, Viable’s permanent art vitrine located in a commercial passage. The Idealist and The Contrarian is made over a time span of 2 years and is now for the first time being exhibited all together as a video installation specially set up for the space.Text
Exhibition Text:
The Idealist and The Contrarian, is a series of ten films made in
collaboration between Matthew Burdis and Jon Baker. The films were
made to the following rules.
1. All films will be 16mm colour, silent and 3 minutes in length.
2. When one artist has completed a film reel it must be passed on to
the other artist who will film onto the same reel – creating a double
exposure.
3. There will be no discussion between artists regarding subject matter
or content.
“The rules, set by ourselves as well as the limitations of the medium,
created a mutual way of working together that was important due to
the lack of communication between us.
Having both created a double exposed film collaboratively, yet
separately, we would watch the finished film alone. Each film responds
to the previous film in the series, creating a visual dialogue between us
both: at times pre-empting each other’s decisions, mirroring previous
endeavours and occasionally destroying current ones.”
This work was supported by the Elephant Trust and was influenced by
the artist Sigmar Polke’s 16mm films shown at Tate Modern in 2014.
Matthew Burdis and Jon Baker