Review C109
bricolage : (French for cobbling together; handyman / DIY activities) Something constructed by whatever materials happen to be at hand; a whole created by a mishmash of disparate elements. 1
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| Aoife Collins: Hens , video still; courtesy the artist |
In an e-mail discussing Apple + Hens + Cockerel , Aoife Collins referred to a deliberate use of bricolage in the construction of this work. In the video, several hens and one cockerel strutted around on a lawn, where a neat and instantly recognisable apple shape had been cut out of the grass. The hens bustled in and out of the indentation, pecking at worms and grass seeds, coming and going out of the shot freely. In this piece the artist was aiming to "transfer... already existing materials... into some form of narration," 2 and Collins stated, "in fact the imagery is quite nonsensical or inane." 3 The imagery that is used has a sense of verisimilitude or familiarity whilst simultaneously remaining absurd. 4 Being historically comedic and absurd, the single-position camera shot helped me to find both these intended elements in the work, and it was interesting to be presented with something so obviously and deliberately symbolist as the apple, which was in the centre of the shot throughout the work. Collins said that
...the apple was chosen in terms of its status as a symbol, as an engagement with the language of logos. It was selected due to the sheer number of connotations which it generates - apple computers, records, New York, Adam and Eve, Snow white, Isaac Newton, Magritte etc - In addition to which it is the prototypical fruit, object beginning with A. The fact that an object has so many multiple connotations is of interest. 5
Put another way,
An apple is not only a symbol with many meanings such as love and health, but it also enjoys a special position as a symbol of symbols…We are more likely to use an apple than any other fruit when we try to exemplify a concept that require some concrete object which really does not need to be specified, but we do so anyway just because it is simpler to give an example and move out of the realm of the abstract . 6 So it seems that Collins was aiming to explore what might happen if she documented the way objects play together when their intended meaning is not necessarily pre-determined. As an artist, there are many ways to invite randomness or the creation of meaning through chance, but this particular use of symbolism, documentary, and endless looping is a combination I have not seen before in video work. Collins describes it as "a slippage of imagery," 7 and while she acknowledges that speculation about gender is invited by the number of hens to cockerels, and the inevitably sexual connotations of the apple, she also clearly points out that there is also "no closure or confidence of articulation." This leaves the work as a deliberately ambiguous piece.
Felicity Ford has recently graduated from Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology with a BA in Fine Art, and is currently developing her sound art practice and art writing in the UK.
Aoife Collins: Bricolage , Goethe-Institut, Dublin, May / June 2004
