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Emergent dialogues, and conversations: watching video clips by Jef Cornelis at the Liverpool Biennial Exhibition 2014
“It is all about capturing a moment in time, the meaning can be infinite, to interpret, significance derives from the eyes of the viewer; this is what the artist meant: a woman a prisoner in the home, learnt but learnt ignorance, ideas prevalent.” The intellectuals discuss and dissect, words spoken and heard. They smile at each other, serious expressions exchanged. “Anvers, Anvers”, ghostly whispers, the ticking of the clock, metal strikes against wood, the noise stops.
The scene changes, they revert to the discussion, leather soles knock on floorboards. They survey the artworks, the camera pans — a madwoman’s wail, singing in French: a discordant chanson. The jarred piano cords strike, cue to change the scene: “interior implies accessibility, but this one is hostile”.
View the painting in detail, “the question is, what does the mirror show?” “One candle in the room but two shown in the reflection.”
“Stolen words, perceptions, “Les touches Allez dormi.” Retrench, “the late-night talk shows, the old grey whistle test. “A woman as an expression of the power of men.” The Brazilian boys: exotic foreign commodities, “prized trophies, the lions head on the wall gathering dust.”
Ban intellectual conversations about the arts, stop discussing human existence, consciousness. Mathematical formulae is a must, it is glorified above all others. “To work in a social structure that you no longer believe in.”
