“In contrast to the ordinary activities of life, the filmic state as induced by traditional fiction films (and in this respect it is true that these films demobilize their spectators) is marked by a general tendency to lower wakefulness, to take a step in the direction of sleep and dreaming. When one has not had enough sleep, dozing off is usually more a danger during the projection of a film than before or even afterwards. The narrative film does not incite one to action, and if it is like a mirror, this is not only, as has been said, by virtue of playing the scenes Italian style or of the vanishing point of monocular perspective, which puts the spectator-subject in a position to admire himself like a god, or because it reactivates in us the conditions belonging to the mirror phase in Lacan’s sense (i.e., heightened perception and lowered motoricty)—it is also and more directly, even if the two things are linked, because it encourages narcissistic withdrawal and receptiveness phantasy which when pushed further, enter into the definition of dreaming and sleep: withdrawal of the libido into the ego, temporary suspension of concern for the exterior world as well as object cathexes, at least in their real form. In this respect, the novelistic film, a mill of images and sounds overfeeding our zones of shadow and irresponsibility, is a machine for grinding up affectivity and inhibiting action.”
—Christian Metz, “The Fiction Film and Its Spectator: A Metapyschological Study” filmic Christian Metz spectator
Angels Came and Ministered unto Him by James Tissot
A painting from a series of Bible illustrations by James Tissot 1886
Grandes Chroniques de France, enluminées par Jean Fouquet, Tours, vers 1455-1460
- Vittore Carpaccio, “St. Augustine in His Study”
- Vittore Carpaccio
“His style was somewhat conservative, showing little influence from the Humanist trends that transformed Italian Renaissance painting during his lifetime.”
- Will Teather, at work
British artist Will Teather graduated from Central St Martins College of Art and Design in 2003, and currently lives and works in Norfolk. He has exhibited regularly in London with the art collective Project 142, and his work was featured at the Marquee Club in Leicester Square.
In spring 2007 Will Teather was selected from worldwide applications to spearhead the new artist-in-residence programme at Aberdeen Arts Centre.
Will Teather, Study for “Venus as a boy”
Central St. Martin’s graduate Will Teather, who is also Norfolk’s Anteros Arts Centre artist in residence, he will display his popular series of magical-realist paintings.
