While watching an old Aspect film last night, I discovered this piece by Lee Walton from 2005, called Making Changes. At first I felt confused as I watched a man slightly move the objects surrounding him and then walking on, but as the film went on I was excited by the wit and subtle nature of this piece. In fact, I was thoroughly enjoying myself. It felt like watching stand-up comedy.
My amusement aside, I found that the film I was watching proposed a much more interesting debate; where is the essence of this piece? Or, for that matter, what is the piece? Is the art the performance of moving objects, the evidence that an object has been moved (that is, the moved object), or the documentation that is the recorded film?
I considered the three possibilities, and while discussing with my non-artist boyfriend, found that it was easy to sway between the options. Personally, I think I settled on the idea that the artist's intent was that the moved object itself would be the piece, and the performance might have been a necessity for him to make the piece happen. After some research, I revised my interpretation and thought that the performance was the primary intent. Then, of course, without documentation, there would be no way to discuss this piece at all. From what I can tell, the three pieces coming together happened to be the only way Lee Walton could make his original intent of displacing objects and creating change.
However, I still question the importance of intent versus audience perception, and believe that if a viewer feels the piece is the resulting film or the performance of these actions, that is equally valid for critique.
I could go on arguing between the three possibilities forever, but am forcing myself not to. I close by saying not that "it's up to the viewer to decide", but by asserting my theory that pieces like this are up to perception. A viewer may not consciously have to consider if the piece is performance, intervention, or film. Instead, it might be a gut reaction to watching the documentation, and maybe "which part of the piece is the piece" doesn't matter.
