Artist Tala Madani Enters the Theatre of Our Minds – 艺术家塔拉·马达尼走进我们心灵的剧场

Tala Madani’s men seem to bring out the worst in each other. When they get together in her paintings and films, they reveal a juvenile sensibility of perversion, or hazing – shaming, alienating, or deceiving each other into entering or creating humiliating or destructive scenarios for themselves. Though generally nondescript, their varying stages of male pattern baldness, paunch, and the occasional moustache disclose their middle age, even in the expressive brushstrokes of her animations. They are feral hybrid creatures crawling and meowing in the alley in Cats and Cat Men (all works 2018); they form a menacing little mob in The Crowd – screened as part of the artist’s compilation ‘The Audience’ at Frieze Los Angeles.

While most of these animations clock in at about a minute long, the comparatively epic Mr. Time, however, subjects us to over seven minutes of the little, menial miseries we impose on ourselves: if Madani’s other films project the visualizations of her men’s frontal lobes – their selfish, darkly indulgent sexual impulses ascend over stabler, nuanced emotional expressions; problem solving; and communication – Mr. Time illustrates the power of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, the segment of the brain controlling doubt and belief.

Four little men watch something like the little theatre of our minds, the one screening snippets of our day. We are director, actor, editor, and audience: viewing and reviewing footage from the day, letting it play out as it did, as it could have, or as it should have. A man smoothly moves up and down the three sets of escalators. A gang of identical men emerge at the top of the stairs, and start to push, chase, or trip our star. He tumbles and falls, losing a limb here and there, which travels up or down a few stairs ahead of him. He literally starts to fall apart. His decapitation is the last straw for the gang; having achieved their mission, they exit the scene. The front-row audience looks on, finishing off their popcorn. His own doubts have literally destroyed him, so he can finally fall into a deep sleep. The movie is over, and the screen goes black.

Tala Madani’s ‘The Audience’ (2018) screened at Frieze Los Angeles on 15 and 17 February 2019. Frieze Film was curated by Ali Subotnick. For more information regarding the fair’s programme, click here.

Main image: Tala Madani, Over Head Projection (Digger), 2018, film still. © the artist

Jennifer Piejko

Jennifer Piejko is a writer and editor living in Los Angeles.

Frieze Week /

Frieze Los Angeles
Tala Madani
Film

塔拉·马达尼手下的人似乎把彼此最坏的一面展现出来。当他们在她的绘画和电影中聚在一起时,他们会表现出一种幼稚的变态感,或是欺负-羞辱,疏远,或是欺骗对方进入或为自己创造羞辱或破坏性的场景。虽然一般说来难以形容,但他们不同阶段的男性模式秃顶,大腹便便,偶尔的胡须透露出他们的中年,甚至在她的动画中富有表现力的笔触。它们是一种野生的混合动物,在猫和猫人的小巷里爬行和喵喵叫(所有作品2018年出版);它们在人群中形成了一个威胁性的小暴徒——作为艺术家在洛杉矶弗里泽的“观众”汇编的一部分进行了放映。然而,当这些动画中的大部分时间都在一分钟左右时,相对史诗般的《时代先生》却让我们经历了七分钟多我们强加在自己身上的卑微痛苦:如果马达尼的其他电影投射出她男人额叶的形象——他们自私、沉溺于黑暗中的性冲动会更稳定地上升,微妙的情感表达、解决问题和沟通——时间先生展示了腹内侧前额叶皮质的力量,这是大脑控制怀疑和信仰的部分。四个小男人在看我们头脑中的小剧场,一个放映我们一天中的片段。我们是导演、演员、编辑和观众:观看和回顾一天中的录像,让它按原样、按原样或按原样播放。一个人平稳地上下移动了三套自动扶梯。一群一模一样的人出现在楼梯顶上,开始推、追逐或是绊倒我们的明星。他跌跌撞撞,断肢断肢,断肢在他前面几级楼梯上下移动。他真的开始崩溃了。他的斩首是帮派的最后一根稻草;他们完成任务后,就离开了现场。前排的观众看了看,吃完了爆米花。他自己的疑虑已经彻底摧毁了他,所以他终于可以沉睡了。电影结束了,屏幕变黑了。塔拉·马达尼的《观众》(2018年)于2019年2月15日和17日在洛杉矶的弗里泽放映。中楣电影是由阿里·苏博尼克策划的。有关展会计划的更多信息,请单击此处。主要图片:塔拉·马达尼,头顶投影(Digger),2018年,电影静止。礼貌:艺术家詹妮弗·皮耶科·詹妮弗·皮耶科是居住在洛杉矶的作家和编辑。Frieze Week/Frieze Los Angeles Tala Madani电影


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