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Amy Greenfield's "Element"

Updated: Jan 22, 2020


I found this film extremely captivating in its use of the physical body covered in an almost tangible element of mud, as well as how the camera moved to capture it. The falling and standing up, the effort it took and the complete submersion in the mud created mixed states of amazement and aversion. The fact that there was no audio sound enhanced the physical sound; I could hear the slappings and suckings of the mud by looking at it. The repetition of falling was also visually audible, and her exhaustion was perceptible in the movement of her breath as she breathed heavily. I also appreciated the scanning of the body by the camera; it moved quickly the length of her body and back again, giving equal weight to the textures of the material, the way the light played on the shape of her body. The mud made her, in moments, invisible, which allowed the my gaze to broaden and gave me a visceral experience.


This piece relates to Eiko and Koma's "Husk", which also deals with a natural element covering a woman's body and how that body moves within and underneath that element, in this case fallen leaves. This piece is sensuous and slow and the body of Eiko is more clearly visible than that of Amy. This piece is more of a poem, playing with metaphor and the image of loosing one's outer layer (husk), while "Element" is an experience, a physical exploration and repetition.


This work contrasts very much to David Hinton's "Birds", which also uses repetition but in a very different way. "Birds" uses no human body and creates rhythm through its clever editing, abstracting nature from itself, digitalising the birds in order to expose their quirks and ingenuities of movement. "Element" uses editing to show the repetition of falling but creates no rhythm with it. Here its use demonstrates the physical exertion the body experiences, enhancing not abstracting its connection with the element and nature.


The camera in "Element" has a close connection to the moving body but equally a connection with the element itself. There is little to no hierarchy between body and mud from the eye of the camera, and while the body takes up nearly the entire frame nearly all of the time, there is no objectifying gaze. The camera moves at times independently from the body, following its own "eye" and interest.





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