I'll be honest, I picked this film because I liked the name Kiki. Part of what makes these exercises so fun but yet so intimidating, is this huge archive of incredibly talented artists whom I've never heard of, nor would have heard of had I not joined this class. Well, I'm happy to have learned a bit about Kiki Smith and for this week, I watched an excerpt of her 1997 work entitled Jewel. My first time watching the film, I really couldn't quite understand what I was watching. I guess I was so concerned about identifying what was coming across the screen, that I think I missed the point. What flies across the screen are these sort of amoeba like jelly fish organisms, a macro shot of a very peculiar world. But despite the strange shapes and the drone like floating across the screen, there were no distinguishing characteristics I could have used to identify the objects. Instead then, I focused more on the abstract. Yes, the visual is quite engaging, but the lack of sound and the strongly contrasting colors allows us to sink into a sort of meditative state (at least for me). It all became a blur of motion to me, and I found the film quite relaxing. Also, there is an intriguing air of mystery to the clip. Kiki Smith's Jewel reminded me to try harder to appreciate films that are amazing in less orthodox ways.
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