Blayne Laures
AVT 101
Professor Winant
December 5, 2011
Steve McQueen
Making the decision to research an artist that I knew absolutely nothing about has proven to be a very rewarding experience. It was a simple task in choosing Steve McQueen over all of the other potential artists because I wanted to study an artist who not only had an awesome name, but also an artist who created artwork out of my typical choices of mediums—this includes graphite, paint, charcoal, and other physical materials. McQueen uses and manipulates film in a way that has changed my entire outlook on the medium and the filming process.
One of the most important things that I took away from doing this research assignment is the fact that it never really occurred to me how powerful a film could be with the absence of sound. Since you do not have any sort of “distraction” from sound you are really forced to concentrate on the action that exist in his work. The silence also helps bring forth a nice personal feel and connection with the artist’s work. The other day while I was driving home in Route-66 traffic I decided I would film my drive home and watch the video once in silence and once with music—both viewings were an entirely different situation. When the video was watched in silence I really found myself looking out for details that I may have messed before.
When the process began to find research for Steve McQueen I found myself unable to find written biographies about him. This made me very worried that I would not find any in-depth information about the artist. However, because I was able to find a great number of interviews with McQueen, I was able to learn lots about his life from his very own mouth. Learning his favorite song, book, what he thinks about art, and just how he presents himself. You’re able to learn a lot about somebody by how they handle themselves around other people and they interact with other people. McQueen comes off as a very intelligent, stern, and strongly opinionated individual with a lot of heart. His project, Queen and Country shows that he really cares about people and their families—he values family and life. This is a very strong characteristic that helped my interest for McQueen grow.
Also, the process of researching McQueen led me to learn about so many other things not directly connected to McQueen. This is all due to the lateral research that has been done for the assignment. For example, because McQueen was born in the year 1969, I was able to re-learn that 1969 was a very important year to the United States of America. Re-learned that Neil Armstrong landed on the moon, that Richard Nixon became the Nation’s President, and that Woodstock changed the way we look at rock music and music festivals. This also allowed me the opportunity to learn what new things happened in the world. Such as, the invention of the battery powered smoke detector, the debut of Sesame Street, and the debut of Monty Python’s Flying Circus. Of course that information may not be crucially important but I still able to learn something new—which is all I ever want to do.
It was also great to learn about the very first permanent photograph (the Daguerreotype) that was created by Louis Daguerre in 1826. Since McQueen primarily deals with film for his artwork it is important to know what helped influenced his medium of choice: film.
This assignment has made it very evident that everything in this world helps in the shaping of all individuals. It is because of Andy Warhol, the invention of film, London’s love for art, and everything else in the world, that McQueen creates the art that he does; and it is because of McQueen (and this assignment) that I now know more about the world than before. It’s interesting how the world works. McQueen has no idea who I am (just as I did not know who he was) and how he has changed my outlook on art and research.
It’s been a great experience and privilege getting inside of the mind and life of an artist whose goal is to indeed get inside (and mess with) the minds of people—to evoke some emotional and physical discomfort.
