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Configure Crude Complexities(2019) /
Configure Crude Complexities
2-channel looped video installation
Joseph Cutts is interested in the aesthetics and intricacies of bespoke manufacturing, and the moments when semi-automated mass-production processes are interrupted or augmented by human and mechanical intervention to produce unexpected outcomes. Filmed in Sheffield Forgemasters International and Lumsdale Glass Studio in Matlock, each highly specialised centres of production, Configure Crude Complexities considers the material properties of both heavy and fragile industries.
The work focuses on the monotony of automated processes involved in the transformation of raw materials through metal forming and glass blowing. Rendering the processes of melting, boring, forming and reshaping as abstract frames on screen, the work explores the unexpected formal and rhythmic qualities within manufacturing itself, through a carefully choreographed sequence of observations.
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Trigger Happy Discipline(2015) /
Trigger Happy Discipline
2-channel looped video installation
Trigger Happy Discipline focuses on the revolving properties of a range of imported drill bits, from steel earth augers to zinc coated, helical plaster mixers, and their formational arrangement, somewhat mimicking methods of Japanese flower arranging in tolerance of construction, assemblage and setting.
Encompassing a purposeful, slow action approach, a controlled trigger dictates the speed of matter in material resulting in a series of singular methodical movements. More than simply following a revolving part, Trigger Happy Discipline empathises with other areas of the tool, such as it’s ‘stem’ and ‘leaves’ as the lens profiles the mundane to the elaborate, given in the unconventional setup of the subject matter.
Subsequently the spiral play becomes an auxiliary, as scale, form, collection and aesthetics determine the curated set, with stature forming the natural order of existing artefacts on this platform.
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Light Behaviour Series(2014) /
Light Behaviour Series
Looped projection
Light Behaviour is an ongoing series of video works formed from an orchestrated repetitive process devised as a means to channel an outcome. The works are created through a reverse method of projection. The setup is of a projection beam positioned to screen a form of moving image. Face on; the beam of light draws in the camera lens and requests to be recorded. As a result of the beaming light, a reading is formulated. These rhythmic readings contain uncontrollable visual responses that help form a contrast to the rigorous technical process.
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Inscribed(2011) /
Inscribed
Looped projection, metallic film loading platter
Cutts addresses the shape and movement of water with a voyeuristic obsession into its fluidity, where one can only observe the glimmer moving over the graceful medium. In Aguaespejo Granadino (1955), Jose Val del Omar exploited the elegant flow of water by very rarely moving the camera, leaving the subject matter to explore the possibilities of motion and velocity. Adopting a similar method here, Cutts, whilst remaining still, is carried by a capriciousness, recognising reflection and flow as a rejection of control and automation.
As a contrast to this, a fragment of filmic history is used as the stage, as an imported 1960s Italian film loading platter is referenced for its origin story, material properties and as the catalyst for control in speed, as information is disseminated to shape accurate movement.
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WELCOME TO TOKYO(2011) /
WELCOME TO TOKYO
Looped video
Cutts’ video is constructed out of moments in cinema that feature images of neon lights in downtown Tokyo. Influenced by the stereotypical representation in film where the use of this iconic imagery depicts the adjournment to the “Bright Lights, Big City” ethos. Winking seductively, the gaudy facade is the embodiment of crass modern culture where the suggestion of excitement and expectation attempt to mask the grim realities within.
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Occupe(2011) /
Occupe
Looped video
Occupe is an adaptation of the final scene from Claude Chabrol’s 1970 film, Le Boucher. The camera draws towards an elevator button, a simplistic flickering red light, repetitive and constant with a predictable outcome, yet one is fixated by the hypnotic quality. Initially occupied until the light goes out, now vacant, and with a feeling of apprehension, we are left to contemplate nothingness, emptiness.