Isaac Julien Ten Thousand Waves

Artist Isaac Julien visited CU last week as a part of the visiting artist series to share his piece “Ten Thousand Waves.” Before playing the 55 minute video Isaac talked about his work and how he displayed the work as a video installation at museums around the world. Isaac choreographed nine double-sided screens that played video as well as audio. Each screen was programmed to play a sequence that was not the same as the other eight, although at times they did match up, while people were free to move around the space to experience the piece.

According to Isaac’s website “TEN THOUSAND WAVES features Maggie Cheung, Zhao Tao, Yang Fudong, and poems by Wang Ping” and the scenes were all shot in China. This work deals with the relationship between ancient Chinese myth and present day China. Due to Isaac’s interest in movement of people, this piece reflects the motion of Chinese people while also juxtaposing old and new traditions that are constant and to do this Isaac researched what he calls, “the violent speed of modernity” in China.

Since the lecture was held in ATLAS 100, Issac displayed the “eight screens” onto one large projection using an unsymmetrical and abstract layout. It was interesting to think of how the piece would change if I had experienced it as a choreographed exploration that Isaac had intended it to be. He said the images displayed moved people around the space along with the audio tracks by changing the focus from one place to the next. This poetic movement continues to show how people move from place to place.

The actual content of the video dealt with three separate parts: footage of Morecambe Bay on the night of the storm, a voice reading Ping’s poetry, and a reenactment of the Chinese film, The Goddess. Isaac created this piece because of 23 Chinese immigrants were smuggled into Britain and drowned in Morecambe Bay while working as cockle pickers. He wanted to tell their story in a poetic manner and bring in an ancient chinese myth about a goddess that protects man.

Isaac chose to include “behind the scene” type of shots that showed green screens, equipment, and at the end people cleaning off the chinese characters from the pieces of glass. The green screen was successful because it reinforced the fact the the woman is mythical and cannot actually gracefully hover over the ocean looking for shipwrecks. I also like the many angles and perspectives that were shown. In the scene’s with the prostitute you can see a close shot of her feet, her view, and another angle showing her face. This reflects the many different views that are possible for each event in history.

Overall I enjoyed his lecture and it was interesting to hear about where his ideas came from and why he chose to present the pieces as an architectural installation.