| Part title |
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| Part identifier |
P0000015 |
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| Part type |
Electronic, digital and audio visual |
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| Part creator |
Layzell, Richard |
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| Part medium |
video |
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| Part description |
Richard describes Floor as the first 'very produced' video he ever made. It was made in 1981 in Carlisle in a refurbished TV studio with a parquet floor and uses sophisticated editing techniques and an experienced crew. To Richard the work now feels like the launching of his career as a video artist. He explains how Floor uses the camera which recorded it as an integral part of the work. Conversely, for Richard, a simple video of a live performance is not itself a performance. He feels Floor was extremely relevant to I Never Done Enough Weird Stuff; it embodied a similar way of working and framing a work, the bare feet being a deliberate connection. It also captures something of the same symbolic and sensory meanings. As a clip, Richard feels Floor has a power; it encapsulates the same emotional and symbolic balance of references which is present in the full length version. He chose to include the image of scraping fingers for its jarring quality. For Richard, during Floor's most emotive sequences the work becomes a minimalist sculptural form. Toward the end of Floor Richard asks himself 'how far can you go?' he feels the wok becomes 'really strange' with references to childish desires and primeval states. Colour balancing was difficult at the time and so Floor was produced as monochrome, the audio hum is present on the master copy. During the screening of the Floor extract Richard moved around the space speaking quietly but audibly to the audience. This specific device is to prevent the audience entering 'video receiver mode'. Richard recognises the tactic of using clips of earlier video works during a performance as a process which can lose some of the meaning of the video piece. He feels it can also look a little 'ham-fisted' and, on reflection he feels he might have shown less. |
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| Provenance |
Description compiled via interview with Richard Layzell, University of Bristol, 2008. |
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