Output details

"Painting Humanity"

BBC Wales audiences and Artes Mundi audience (National Museum and Art Galleries of Wales

Research Context

The research context for this project is one of hybridity in form and subverting the standard TV commissioning model. The work centres on The 2008 Artes Mundi 3 exhibition held at the National Museum and Art Galleries of Wales (Praxis theme) and the output was to be a television documentary (Praxis form) the exact nature of which would evolve through the process of making.

Research Imperatives

The process of creation of the film explored the themes that concerned the work of the shortlisted artists, namely: identity, citizenship, democracy and power, community, life/death and materiality.

Project methods

Morris set out a ‘manifesto of making’ that had to be conformed to throughout the whole process,:

• To create a fictional narrative that housed a documentary within a narrative drama form.

• Not to show a wider body of artists’ work but only to show their Artes Mundi shortlisted works.

• Not to show any of the artists actually on camera

• To ‘hear’ the artist speak of their methodologies and specifically about their shortlisted piece, but not about themselves, their wider work or career.

• To restrict each artist to a discreet segment of the film, without intercutting of artists.

• No use of voiceover or written narration but to take narration from other programmes dealing with the wider theme of the exhibition.

Documentary film was used as a mode of inquiry to explore and bridge the gulf between the language of contemporary visual art (in an art gallery setting) and a diverse television audience. The research strategy aimed to construct a documentary offering audiences greater understanding and enjoyment of contemporary art, across linguistic and geographic boundaries and encouraging debate within a wider cultural sector.

Dissemination

BBC 2 Wales 19th May and 14th July 2008)

Artes Mundi (National Museum and Art Galleries of Wales)