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Jeannie Mah: Films and Videos
Jeannie Mah's work is not solely ceramic but, she is also very involved with making
films and videos in Regina. She has worked in conjunction with several other film - makers
and videographers.
In 1992 Jeannie Mah helped to produce a video, titled J/G, with film - maker
Garrett Pich at the University of Regina. The video attempts to ask many questions about
gender and ideology, in a tongue in cheek manner. The video itself is heavy with
post-structuralist text but, portrayed with a humour that makes it very accessible. In a very
Sesame Street-like fashion both Jeannie Mah and Garrett Pich take on the textual references
with ease and enthusiasm.
Still from Meta(l) - Cup 1995 Photo: Ed Jones
Jeannie Mah's next video was Meta(l) - Cup. Conceived in Banff in 1988, this
video was made in collaboration with Ruth Chambers in 1993 and 1995 in Regina. A large aluminum
cup metaphorically exposes the situations, dilemmas and (in)decisions of a woman artist, without
offering any solutions. Jeannie wrote this about her video:
The video borrows the Byzantine stance of The Colour of
Pomegranates (1967), by Armenian film maker Sergei Paradjanov. Veering between the
archaic and the modern, the video (also) takes the form of the French
Classical essay. A painted decaying wall frames each section. In the Hypothèse,
a series of 5 studied positions allude to my questions and doubts. The Antithèse
fragments the form established in the hypothèse, as close-ups move from the
intellectual to the corporeal. The Synthèse continues the fragmentation and the
action becomes frenetic. The cups are dropped, broken, abandoned, and taken away. Yet, is there
any escape?
Still from Meta(l) - Cup 1995 Photo: Ed Jones
Jeannie's video works reflect the subject matter of her ceramics. Jeannie focuses on her
travels and experiences throughout the world as well as her home, and critically examines the
role of ceramics in the fine art world. This reflects many of her exhibitions, including
Chiaroscuro and Ouvrez les Guillemets.
Jeannie recently completed a video with Barbara Sternberg. Set in a Toronto café,
Past/Future explores the relationship between everyday life and art. The café
resembles Manet's A Bar at the Folies-Bergères, in the same way as Jeannie's
ceramic tableaux resembled two-dimensional images in Chiaroscuro.
Dooney's, the local café, a site for everyday life, is being threatened by Starbucks,
much in the same way that "High art" threatens craft-based mediums like ceramics
or new technologies like video. Friends, food and art swirl around objects, representational
and real, as Past/Future wanders between the public and the private, before veering off
towards the contemplative. Again Jeannie plays with the duality of functional ceramics and fine
arts, focusing on her own history as an artist and as an
individual.
Jeannie has also worked on the set of several films as an art director. In 1995 Jeannie
worked again with Garrett Pich as an art director for his film Njurotik and an assistant
art director in 1996 Remember in-between Forget with Tobi Lampard, which won several
awards.
Felipe Diaz
Gallery Facilitator |
