Extra Credit: Ellen Scott Lecture

After the reception for Matt Bodett and the Bay Windows was a lecture by Ellen Scott. I didn't really know what to expect from this because I didn't know her, or what her work was like. She started the lecture out with an exercise for the audience. It had four parts to it. 1. cool down and warm up. 2. entanglement-look at every detail and try to see everything. 3. reflect and write. 4 relax and recieve-pay attention to what comes into your mind. This exercise is for before you look at art. So she had the lights dimmed and we sat for a couple minutes with our eyes closed and tried to just focus on breathing. Then she played a video that she made and we tried to notice every detail. The video was at the bottom of a couple escalators at the Central Station in Hong Kong. It was around rush hour and so there were tons of people moving about. Ellen said she just stood there in the middle of all the people and just stood still with a camera. After watching the video she had us write down everything that came to mind. Here is what I wrote:
Somewhere in another country. All asian people. Most girls had short hair. No one looked happy. There was a girl with flowers coming down the escalator. The camera was at the bottom of the escalator where people come off. It gave me a sense of movement. I felt weird, almost like I was moving a little bit. It was really crowded. People acted like they didn't see the camera. When it first came on I wasn't really sure about it. I was wondering, why this? There was weird music paying too. Almost like the sound of the escalator, it intensified a little too. Played in slow motion.

The reason for this video was because Ellen was feeling a sense of "otherness," and seeking connection with other people. She wondered what would happen if she stood still amongst all these people who were moving.

The themes of her exhibit are separation, longing, isolation..etc. She talked about her process and her work that is in the gallery opening tonight. It's titled "Liminal" that comes from the latin word limen meaning threshold. After she finished she had some time for people to ask questions, and that was it. Being at the reception for the whole time before and then being at her lecture for another hour and a half was a lot for me, but she seems really nice and good at what she does.