back to the arts

Brody Condon, Twentyfivefold Manifestation 2008

After living in the woods for a week it was refreshing to come back to civilization, and to be immediately immersed back into school. Thursday of last week USF had a visiting artist, Brody Condon, speak about some of his most recent work. Brody got his MFA at the University of  California in San Diego. More recently he's been living in New York working on these instillation pieces. The one, in particular, that he came to talk about was Twentyfivefold Manifestation 2008.  I could feel the awkward silence swish around in the room, a few mumbled comments, blank looks on faces, but never so much as a giggle (thank god). Brody didn't seem entirely comfortable speaking in front of us. I didn't find this denoted him as a bad artist, I was only more eager to see his work.

With little explanation behind the piece, he played the video for us. I can't speak for everyone in the room, but I know that I was confused. The video was shot in a park in the Netherlands, if I remember correctly. The video seemed very raw, as if anyone with a video camera had happened to stumble upon this bizarre cult and pressed 'record'. There is no dialog (outside of some chanting, with only a few words recognizable), so the viewer is forced to come to their own conclusions of the happenings in the video by the characters use of body language, their surroundings, etc. Towards the end of the video I enjoyed the videographer's use of tight shots, I felt this gave the video a better sense of intimacy with the characters that we had been watching in the film. 

After the film was finished he gave a bit more explanation. The way he talked about his history with these LARPS (Live Action Roll Playing Scenarios) helped me to empathize with the characters. This may help give a better understanding towards this artists association and history with LARPS that fueled his desire to make this art:

Brody grew up in the mid west. He had a fondness for Dungeons and Dragons as a child, but was misunderstood as a demon worshiper for playing with such games. Since childhood it has been a struggle for acceptance with these so-called demonic games, and now as an adult the LARP world is evolving to such a larger scale that he is all the more intrigued. He is determined to revolutionize things in the LARP world even more. The Scandinavian countries warmly welcome LARPS, but it is in America where Brody wants to bring this way of life to this same level of acceptance.

For me, I think it's incredibly exciting when any one person becomes so passionate about one thing that they are willing to dedicate their life to that one thing. For Brody it is LARPS. When the discussion let out into the court yard for food and drinks I could hear the conversations rising up, "That was awful," "I can't believe I waited around for that," "At least I got some free food out of the deal." Granted, I thought the video was poorly executed, but I think that his passion for the subject is something that should be recognized. 

Also, the large, futuristic living spaces that he created for the scenario were extraordinary. He did warn the audience that his focus was/is in sculpture work, and that working with computers and video recording equipment is still new to him. Also, the entire scenario that these characters were living out was a LARP world that Brody had created himself. When the viewers take into account that these are what constitute as his art it becomes more exciting, for me at least. 

Here is a link that gives a better idea of this work. 

Here is a link that shows some of his older work.