One of my many art-school frustrations was with the expectation that someone who draws should also be trying their hand at video - I never found I had the knack for it, even though I knew full well that some of my favourite artists could do both quite successfully. The first time I saw a solo exhibition of Marcel Dzama’s work, his crudely surreal films with their costumed actors were every bit as compelling as his drawings and sketchbook pages, of the same universe but entirely different.
In retrospect, I realize that the previous art films (I’m thinking along the lines of The Lotus Eaters) were renditions more in common with the sketchbooks than his cleanly finished drawings. Whereas the music video below, which Dzama directed in collaboration with Patrick Daughters for the Department of Eagles track ‘No One Does It Like You’ is all about those finished drawings brought uncannily to life.
It’s a mildly unnerving experience as most translations usually are, but at the same time I’m impressed by how accurately it captures Dzama’s world, with the open desert as an effective and politically charged analogue to his usual blank white paper.
The video premiered last night at MoMA; the DoE album In Ear Park is available via 4AD.
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