Empire: Reading Vs. Watching

  

Clement Greenberg's Living Room, Encompassing a Variety of Works From His Collection

        Watching Empire by Paul Sietsema, sent me on a visual roller coaster as some scenes were easy to understand or relate my experiences to, while others were of up-close images of hard-to-make-out objects and things, such as a grasshopper. However, reading about the piece was a completely different experience. Roberta Smith within her article, definitely hypes up the films and the effects. Describing that Sietsema uses multiple disciplines to encompass the title of Empire. Not only with the use of imagery of the Rococo period but of imagery of Clement Greenberg’s living quarters with his large painting collection. 

        The film itself is a lot to digest from the long scenes, lack of music or sound and alternating pivots of each scene from upside down to inverted. The grainy quality of the video itself offers almost an ominous depiction being unsettling to the viewer. Images that are unrecognizable to the brain in my opinion allowed for the imagination to take over. Especially, when it comes to the bugs' nest or coral piece as well as the fade in of the grasshopper. At first I believed this was a forest from above, still encompassing nature but oddly represented through a large scale and almost too close image of the grasshopper. Within the reading, she does mention the frustrating provoking film that it is and I concur. She also mentions the accessibility of this film. Believing it to be inaccessible to viewers since it relies on places not relatable to many of the population. Accessible art to me is very important, it implies a deeper connection with the piece especially with audiences unfamiliar to the art world cues. 

     Using the juxtaposition of Clement Greenberg's home, especially the reference to his Vogue article where he 'humbly' bragged about how influential and powerful he was, the Rococo frivolous pattern was powerful and definitely encompassed the Empire atmosphere the artist was trying to achieve. The film is broken down to multiple parts. Including the pro-longed scenes of the Rococo paris saloon as Rococo was the period of emphasizing the rich and the frivolous and keeping the dark parts of society out of the way of art, breaking away from baroque and dark imagery. Smith creates this connection by stating the power that Clement has over the art critic world. His influence, writing and choosing of artists brings him to the top of art critics as he is most known. 

        While I understand the title of Empire, the visual cues such as the pro-longed timing did not catch my attention. It took a lot of work to maintain a focused eye, especially with no noise and the same scene over and over.