A Process - Behind the visuals for Cristiana De Marchi
When I show up, Cristiana is already knitting the wall. I’m here to watch it grow. We have a goal set, the amount of meters Cristiana has in mind to achieve, and how many hours we will spend filming together - We immediately settle into our roles - her performing the task of knitting and me filming the process in pretty much any way I like. I focus on composing and capture the artist at work.
As my focus deepens and the seconds tick by, the clockwork knitting is my metronome. Time slows down for both of us, but for me in my act of watching I start to lose all sense of it. 12 minutes feels like 25, 35 minutes seem like 7. I don’t watch the clock. I watch the process. I eventually lose focus and either I move my frame or I ask her to move. We repeat the process. The needles cut through the beats with their blades, with my wandering mind tuning sharp with them. The breathing of time while I watch the threads move into stitches keeping me still, in my place. I sometimes feel the strain of knitting, with my fingers and knuckles tingling as I watch hers.I push her to keep going until I feel satisfied. We always shoot an extra hour.
I’ve been watching Cristiana de Marchi knit for many years. The routine is the same. She has a concept that needs photographic expression. We discuss visual possibilities, brainstorm together and settle on an affordable way to shoot it. I direct it, producing photo and video imagery.
When she approached me to document her knitting large pieces, our conversations led to the conclusion that instead of creating a short consumable documentary film, edited to match the attention span of the average human, we just film as much as we can of the process of creating, and show it in its entirety. ‘No one will be able to watch 5 hours of knitting’ was my first thought. I saw that the power of time is respected and not ignored, and I found it revelatory to just let the timecode be unreasonable.
This is a cost of the piece. The time. The work that Cristiana has to put in for it to exist. As someone who survives freelance the value of time is always a large part of my inner monologue. The pleasure of the work is derived through giving it the time.The endings in film and still photography feel rewarding, to see the hard work up on walls - but ultimately the idea of spending my time filming hours and hours of knitting was intriguing to me.
My perspective of dipping in and out of the knitting process meant that it’s not the doing that took precedence for me, but that the doing has to be done constantly so we could hit the right notes each time we meet.
A mix of documentary and creative art direction, I became more than a witness to the creative process, I felt like a composer directing the performer’s rhythms, I a slave to the time it takes to create the notes needed to reach a new place in the physical piece. We never know exactly where we end up in the visual recording of the process, and this is where I get to flex my own art practice. We talk. We discuss the concept, we discuss visual avenues and we start aiming for various goals. My personal focus and love for fine art photography shines and my contributions frame the knitted pieces with contextual and conceptual imagery.
The time I dedicate dictates the length of the visual video art work, but not the physical art piece itself. As I stare at the diligence of the artist creating in front of me, my own understanding of the art practice grows with the wall, and within the echo of the void, I find my contributions for the sake of art.
I suppose I am an instrument - a tool with a mind of its own. Am I an archive of the artist? A voyeur of her art process ? An image supplier ? A producer ? A creative director? With undefined roles as creators, we both navigate our needs as we move forward. When I asked Hasan Sharif about what matters in fine art, he simply said that I must seduce him, lure him. I am most certainly seduced by the knitting of Cristiana.
Every session lasts between 3 to 4 hours, and my brain is as spent as Cristiana’s fingers by the end. The meditative qualities of the work exercise my stillness, leaving my mind at ease with the pleasure of the growth. Growth of the footage, growth of the creature that Cristiana feeds so obsessively. I watch her shrink as it grows. She reaches her goal and closes the piece, finalizing its length. We never use those endings, as the longform videos loop forever, so those snippets are just for me, proof that the filming is over, that I can go home and finish the composition and Cristiana can wrap up her creation in a potli and we go our separate ways.
I am so proud of the work I did for the documentation of creating the wall - here are my favorite stills from the 3 hour film I photographed and directed.
I was commissioned for this massive exhibition featuring the life’s works of Cristiana De Marchi by Maraya Art Center. Curated by Cima Azzam, the photographic and video requirements were a massive undertaking. I took on the massive project and executed it solo.
One of the requirements to photograph artworks by the artist for archival and catalogue usage. The biggest singular collection I have ever photographed. I photographed over 400 artworks. All ranging in size, color, shape and concept.
The biggest challenge was to photograph the 'white series’ of works. Not only had I the task of staying true to the works and document them as they are - I also had to take into account that they were being photographed specifically to be printed in a catalogue that I was warned would have challenges showing detail. I was requested to brighten up all the works more than once in service of print. Here are some of my favorite images from that collection. The trippiest part of the artworks is that the depth is sometimes only visible once you look at it from an angle - swipe to see the details of these gorgeous works !
As challenging as photographing all white canvases are, all black canvases were nowhere more simple. To show detail in shadows on black canvas might seem impossible, but the right angle of light creates the depth needed to show the intricate works.
Some detail shots of the black series of works.
This collection of canvases melted my brain a bit as I photographed them. Low key my favorite pieces that I was not involved in creating. Switching between them is hypnotic.
One of the reasons I continue to gravitate towards Cristiana’s works is the inherent playfulness of her work. This artwork hit me hard because I often feel quite uprooted in my life.
My biggest contribution in my opinion, besides my witnessing so much knitting, was a series of images I suggested to the artist when she said she needed some stills for the video art piece I shot for her called “ Echo of the Void “.
My experience working with fabrics tickled me, and I suggested two methods. One with using the same lighting we use for the art film, so they sit perfectly with the video art, but I insisted we photograph the project in the way I have worked with my Expanse Series project and I insisted I return with my studio lighting and photograph them my way.
I am very proud of these imaes, I see them as an extension to my growth as a collaborator and an artist. The artist went through a personal tragedy in the middle of this part of the project and I offered to produce the works through Gulf Photo Plus free of charge. I ended up choosing the most gorgeous paper ( Hahnemühle Photo Rag Bright White at 310gsm ) and had them printed. I delivered them to 1x1 Gallery, to be framed by the artist’s preferred framer.
Seeing the photographs next to the actual knitted piece framed next to it with the art film playing opposite the images is such a special experience. To put it in this little room inside was a stroke of genius from curator Cima Azzam and the artist.
The art film I made is over 4 hours long, so here’s just a snippet. It was first debuted at 1x1 Gallery in Al Serkal, and in the Maraya exhibition it was shown in that dark room opposite the stills I created.
Maraya Art Center also requested that I photograph the gallery for the catalogue. Here are the photographs of the show and some more documentation of artworks.
Within the Artist's Acknowledgements section I found this gem of a dedication :
My personal thanks goes to Altamash Urooj, for his generous intellectual contribution in elaborating creative approaches towards the documentation of my works: our collaboration dates back to 2012 and has been a truly enriching experience during all these many years
How beautiful is that ?
The show is on until the end of August, and you can check for details on the Maraya Art Center website.