Over a century ago we were told by Hegel that ‘we have become too sensible for myths…[and] all we need to do is simply to open our eyes, to leave the dark world of metaphysics and the false depths of inner life behind and we will discover the immense human wealth that the humblest facts of everyday life contain.’ It is with this sentiment in mind that the Jam Collective bring us 10:25. The work encourages us to re-examine the ways we think about our everyday life and was motivated by the artists’ observations of the sublime, artifice and repetition in their own everyday lives. The Jam Collective have chosen to capture these fleeting moments on film and their motivation as they describe it, is to capture their ‘observation of the simple, yet sublime moments that get lost in routine’.
It is important to note that Brewster and Fraser are both primarily trained as painters and for them 10:25 is partly the result of wanting to escape the confines of the studio space. Painting is the most conventional medium of the arts and is the art form most associated with art as commodity. Further, working with a largely unfamiliar medium has evidently forced the Jam Collective to be more conscious of the way that video effects the meaning of their work. Unlike painting, the video in 10:25 is intended to be immersive. As a result the audience is forced to prioritize one particular view point in the everyday routine presented. Like the bus route that is itself always on a loop so too is the video in 10:25. The result is almost hypnotic.
Video is considered a medium of documentation. Like its older sibling the photograph, video is commonly perceived as an apt vehicle for objectively capturing reality. The irony of course is that like most video 10:25 is pre-meditated and is the result of several takes. As a consequence the work is not a recording of the everyday so much as it is a simulation of it. Notice that none of the passengers in the work obviously react to the camera lens, choosing instead to act out the everyday roles expected of them.
The intention of the Jam Collective is therefore not to capture the reality of the everyday so much as it is to prompt us to notice it for ourselves. The sublime is not able to be captured. Traditional artistic associations of the sublime evoke thoughts of Turner, mountains, light and the all encompassing fulfillment of the senses, all of which are very far from everyday city life. By contrast you have 10:25 and its main character a girl, who as part of the Ipod generation expressionlessly tries to escape her surroundings by immersing herself in music and in her own inner life, and thus misses Hegel’s and the Jam Collective’s point: the familiar is not necessarily the known.
Essay written by Laura Naimo and Chrysi Lionis
