I am writing about James Markidis’ tape, Maturation of an Artist. In this tape, Markidis reads a text over an inverted green-screen cut out of himself (famous hair being tossed in signature style), with underlaid footage of urban exteriors featuring himself and frequent collaborator, Ian McPhail. The sound scape shifts from a single voice in voice-over to a mash-up of that same voice, distorted and overlapping. The negative space of the image moves from unmotivated green screen to Takeshi Murata-esque pixelated color fields, then shifting to red-orange. At the same time, the inky outline of Markidis’ form slowly morphs to a oscillating boundary, to finally, a translucent image of the artiste himself.
Markidis’ script describes the chronology of his development as an artist. He tells us that “[his] teacher says that [his] video was the best video she’s ever seen… but because [he was] laughing when [he] presented it, she’s not going to give [him] a good grade… it makes no sense… she’s a bitch.” It would appear that Markidis hit his stride at an early age.
He also tells us that “Mr. Hallow’s an asshole… he says [Markidis is] talented at art, but, because [he] fool[s] around all the time he’s not going to give [him] an A… but it’s just because [he's] better than everyone and so [he] finish[es] quicker.” The speed at which an artwork is made has always been the hallmark of its greatness.
“[Markidis] find[s] that [he's] really upset by the bovine nature of people.” I find that I am really upset by the porcine nature of this comment, but apparently “[he] is an artist out of frustration!” (which “may seem pompous, but [he] can’t help but feel angry”).
The only place where Markidis comes close to redeeming his otherwise impossibly arrogant pose is when he suggests that there may be some reason for it: “I want my dad to move back from Ohio to live with us again… that way we can get a house.” In this one statement, Markidis paints a picture of a real boy, somebody for whom it’s possible to feel empathy.
What’s notable about all Markidis’ statements is that they all share the same adolescent tone. It’s interesting that Markidis describes this as his maturation as an artist, because his voice throughout the piece remains consistently puerile. He is petulant and juvenile from his first statement through his last. If this is a maturation, he still has a long way to go.
By Rachel Pigott
