Artist Statement-Lili Kligman-Roitman

Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.

Since I realized I wasn't meant to be a person who can draw or paint, my passion has always been video. Six years ago, I decided to pursue my Bachelor's Degree in Television and Video Production at Emerson College, because I realized that was the only medium that was liberating my creativity. From there, I started doing more of experimental videos, one example could be 'Love at First Brush,' a montage about a complicated and wild-love story between the toothbrush and the mouth.





However, for some reason, maybe because I love the genres of sci-fi and horror, or just because I enjoy over-analyzing everything in life, I've found myself using the themes of life, death and reincarnation in most of my videos. In 'Waiting', a digital video montage I did using some interesting color effects during post-production and green screen during production, I explored the storyline of a woman who descends from heaven into the ocean, only to become flesh again, and goes searching for the soul of her past lover. The only conflict she has, is that the soul of her past lover has embodied another human being, who is in love with another girl. The woman who descends from heaven takes journeys into parallel worlds.

"Waiting"




When I started taking the Time-Based Media class (as part of my Master's Degree program at Northeastern University), I realized that I can examine the aforementioned subjects using photography. Now, I personally only believe in Heaven, what is called Hell, doesn't exist. Nevertheless, in my Interactive Book, called 'Divine Soul', I decided to re-create Dante's "Divine Comedy" and the three worlds of the afterlife he describes ( Paradise, Purgatory and Hell) using my many photographs of ice. The intended idea was to use the subject, ice, as the representation of the soul. For some reason I became fascinated with the idea that a simple cube of ice can have so many meanings, besides what it really is. Here are some screenshots of 'Divine Soul'


Purgatory:



Hell:



In the Jewish religion, it is believed that when a person dreams about a loved one who passed away, it is because that loved one is visiting the dreamer. That is the beauty of dreams, anything can happen and that anything can sometimes feel more real than life itself. The influence in my artistic view comes also from dreams, and who else can know more about dreams than the master Salvador Dali? For many years I have been in love with Dali's artwork. He is best known as one of the main artist from the Surrealist movement starting in the mid-1920's after experimenting with the cultural movement known as Dada or Dadaism.

"The Persistence of Memory" (Painting, 1931)




On the other hand, I also feel strongly passionate about the artwork created by M.C. Escher. Mr. Escher was a Dutch-Firsian graphic artist in the 1930s-1960s who was known for his mathematically inspired lithographs, woodcuts and mezzotints. What irrigates my interest in his artwork, is the impossible constructions and designs that challenges infinity. It's like dreaming, where nothing is what it seems to be.

"Relativity" (Lithograph, 1953)




In the future I would like to keep doing experimental videos implementing other forms of media, such as graphic design, photography and possibly being able to translate all the ideas that inspired me into art installations. I want to be able to take my audience INSIDE my dreams and thoughts, and not "push" them away with a screen. And in this journey so far I have learned many lessons, the most important one is to never apologize for your art, because beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Story Treatment

My idea is a day in the life of a student. Just a regular normal day where a student gets up, goes to college, hangs out with friends and comes home. A simple story, no fancy scripts or exotic locations. When you think about it, a student's normal day has so many emotions like anxiety (getting to class on time, pop quizzes!!!), laughter (hanging out with friends), boredom (studying and homework, we've ALL been there). Basically, there's a lot that goes on in an average student's day. I haven't thought a lot of shots, but I'm leaning towards close ups, OSS and medium shots. I'd like the story to just be more of a simple biography and not necessarily have a message.

Goodwyfe Connors

My simple task will be "baking a cake." Inspired by instructional films of the 1950's, this will likely be a series of highly unnatural, theatrically posed images. I will first show my roommate standing by our kitchen table with ingredients in front of her (mid shot), then move to a POV shot of the mixing bowl, and then return to a mid shot of her mixing the ingredients. Next, I'll use a cut-in to show her pouring the batter into a pan, a wide shot to show her putting the pan into the oven, and a cut-in to show her setting the timer. To convey the elapse of time, I'll probably use a cut-away shot of a clock, a medium close up of her applying lipstick, and a cut-in of her filing her nails. To return to the action, there will be a medium close-up of her reacting to the "ding" of the timer. A mid shot will show her removing the pans from the oven, placing them on the countertop, and cooling the cake by waving a pot holder like a fan. Next, I'll use a cut in to show her removing the cake from the pan with a spatula, and the switch to a mid shot of her frosting the cake. To close, there will be another medium close-up of her reacting to the sound of the door opening, then a noddy of the husband's delighted reaction to the cake, and then a two-shot of them with the cake.

Self Potrait Treatment

My story will be about a process of creating a self-portrait using photography. It will have a person’s reflection on a broken mirror with various shots in different moods. The video will show how the person gets inspired, what is the though process and what is the work flow to get the end result. It will have still shots, some screen capture of post processing and split screen shots to convey the message.

Lili- Art instead of a Bedtime Story

Going to the McMullen museum was a great trip on a lovely spring day. BC's campus is so beautiful. I very much liked the whole exhibition as all the books there are very impressive and we are able to see another side of  what is called "high art" besides the "usual" paintings or sculptures...as a matter of fact some books actually make use of these two medium to create such rich content. However, there are three artist's books that really impressed me.

1. "On the Line" by Linda Johnson and Kristy Lewis Andrew 

Consists of twelve rumors silkscreened on cotton muslin panels, twelve miniature clothespins, and a clothesline. The viewers connect with the piece in the way that it's symbolically about hanging out the dirty laundry.

I thought the piece was fantastic and yet so simple. It's fun to look at and put a smile on my face after reading some crazy gossip about famous artists having weird fixations with their art work. For example, one rumor on the piece is about how painter Jackson Pollock would drink vodka and then piss on his canvas underneath his feet. That is how he came up with his signature artwork/ motif. I have heard this from an art teacher some years ago, and I never thought it could potentially be true.

2. "Dinner with Mr.  Dewey " by M.L. Van Nice

This book installation was VERY impressive, not only because of its originality, but because of all de details and the fact that you could actually walk up to the table, go around it, and instantly recognize all the "food" that was being presented through books. The piece is a take on the seventeenth-century essayist Francis Bacon, who said "Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested." I think Bacon's intellect has been presented brilliantly and in a very exquisite (no pun intended) way by the artist Van Nice. Afterall it is true that " order is in the eye of the orderer."

3. "B-11226: Fifty Years of Silence" by Tatana Kellner.

This piece transmits a strong message to anyone who gets near its glass container at the museum, especially the hole the arm has left literally cutting through 

the family pictures. Just by looking at the arm and the number on it, the viewer knows what the story behind it is about. There isn't even a need to read the artist's statement to feel connected to the pain and suffering that this book provokes. I am jewish and I have met Holocaust survivors, and so it's very interesting how I was able to relate to this particular book more so than with any other in the exhibition; as I felt it tells part of my ancestor's life  and therefore, where I come from. 

I think that it would had been great to have a HUGE log book at the entrance of the museum, so each visitor would be part of the exhibition by leaving their name on a book presented as art as well. 

The Book as Art exhibit at Boston College

I went to the 'The book as art' exhibition on the 4th of May. I may be a person who can't see beyond conventional ways to portray art or books, but a lot of what I saw, to me at least, didn't really qualify as a 'book as art' or even as 'art'. A bunch of spectacle frames broken and put in a frame is not a book, and I don't see how it qualifies as art either. Art has a purpose. I don't see how being vague in conveying a message qualifies as a purpose. However there were some pieces of work that did reach out and grab me. One on particular was by a russian artist, Vera Khlebnikova who told the story of post communism Russia. After the fall of the communist government, censorship was done away with and the press began to print stories that wouldn't have passed the censor board of the old guard. Amongst the things that were printed were personal ads. These ranged from ads for services to sexual ads. Amonst the ads what stood out was this ad: 'I am dying. I have a 4 year old daughter. Need loving foster parents to care for her'. The ad was cut and pasted from a newspaper along with a photograph of the girl in question. With just the pages of a book, a simple ad and a photograph, the woman had created a moving piece of art.

Lili_Assignment # 2- Interactive book

For this assignment I decided to create an interactive book. I wanted to keep the theme of my first assignment (the soul) and take it further using the same object (ice). I took about 30 pictures of ice, in different ways and on several surfaces and then found myself editing the colors of these and mainly adding red, yellow and blue hues. I wanted to show with the ice the places where the soul can end up in the afterlife (according to some religions and old literature values) : heaven, purgatory or hell. I then realized that Dante's "Divine Comedy" shows these three worlds with brilliant detail. I then decided to play around with my pictures, and represent Dante's poems with composed images and words (descriptions of these worlds according to Dante's masterpiece).

I tried to upload the quicktime file directly on here, but it's a big file and the system didn't allow me to do so. Please, if you are interested on reading my interactive book called "Divine Soul", download the file. 

It should open as a Quicktime, full screen, and you have to click on your mouse to flip each page of the book. You can use your keyboard arrows as well, and this way you can flip each page back and forth as you may like.

Click HERE  for download page

Rexon_Transformation

Kathryn, Homework Two

Assignment 2

I expanded upon the original photograph showing a transformation from one picture to another.

Mix Untouched

Digital Media Design Studio

If anyone is in need of equipment, recording space or software, you might want to check out Northeastern's Digital Media Design Studio. It is "a collaborative and interdisciplinary learning environment for creating course-related multimedia presentations, projects and portfolios," located on the second floor of Snell Library. (They are also friendly and helpful.) Here's the link:

http://www.lib.neu.edu/libraries_and_collections/digital_media/

Mix

Kathryn's Photo, Week One

I really hope this works...here is my "Transformation" photo for Week 1.

Lili-Assignment_Composition

Melting of Life

The transformation of our souls...

03:15 class post

This is a post for the 03:15 class.

Assignment 1

I merged a current photo of myself with an old one. I decided to go in for a black and white effect because it stands out far more than colour.