The still frames from Ragnar Kjartansson's video, were not my favorite images among those on the list we were asked to view, but the location of the shooting was very interesting to me. The press release for the exhibition mentions the Rokeby Farm--where Kjartansson filmed--and a little bit of it's history and present status. After looking at a few of his images, I thought to myself "I want to go to the Rokeby Farm!" and so my attention was diverted away from the website and to a google search of the farm in an attempt to figure out if rentals are available for the public. I still don't know if they are, but I did spend a good 20 minutes reading articles about the property and looking at pictures of it online.
I had a simliar experience while going through Moyra Davey's work (which I really responded to, along with a few other artists represented by Murray Guy--Patricia Esquivias in particular). I watched a youtube video of her discussing the pieces she exhibited at the Whitney Biennial, and she explained that Mary/Marie, 2011 was constructed using images from Mary Wollestonecraft's "Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark." When she explained the letters, I thought "I want to read those letters!" but I continued looking at Davey's work, and made a mental not to myself to look up the book later.
So I've been thinking about those two outcomes. For me, the spectacle of Rokeby house (and it being very emphasized in the marketing of the art) over-powered his images, and my experience of it became defined by my desire for the farm. And perhaps that is partly due to the fact that his work is made of moving images, so viewing still cuts of it doesn't allow what he's done to come through properly. I'm interested to visit, and experience his films in person and see what happens.
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