CUR (Excerpts)

Curran, Fiona ORCID: 0000-0003-0409-9151 (2014) CUR (Excerpts). [Film / Video]

	Video CUR Excerpts.mp4 - Accepted Version Available under License All Rights Reserved. Download (168MB)
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Abstract

Film, (Duration 4:40, excerpts duration 2:10) Cerberus reimagined: the mongrel portrait. Two Staffy’s wait in purgatory before being reinstated as the guardians of the underworld by Pluto. A meditation on the so called "dangerous" dog. CUR has previously been exhibited with my other film works and is always placed by the door of any exhibition, as the guard dog of these shows. It is the first part of “The Scientist Series”, born originally from a 9 part poetic cycle, in which a scientist tries to “distil” her grief, her loss, and extract its elemental meaning. An episodic, abstract enquiry, this is a portrait of the working class/underclass attack dog, the ubiquitous “Staffy”. The film records two dogs’ journey back to their home and their untrusting master Pluto, the guardian of the underworld, where they are reinstated after their previous failure to protect purgatory from the invading Hercules The film is born out of a desire to reflect on and re-think the status of the Staffy as talisman, the “dog of choice” for the marginal, the criminal class, and the misunderstood. This is examined through non-narrative film techniques which emerge from a practice based in sound design, and fine art film making. The dogs are “softened”, i.e., they are removed from a stereotypical vision of the “monster dog” and here are restored to a more “natural” state. This is done by a deep physical examination (textural in nature) of fur, face, and eyes, and by a minimalistic sonic overlay, telling a parallel sound story issuing from, at once, the interior of the dog’s body, the mechanics of the lift (echoing the lift shafts in the schemes in which these dogs are believed to dwell in numbers. Every door hiding a possible “monster”) and the song of the owner and calling them back, forgiven, to the fold. As such CUR reflects on the two headed Cerberus, in essence as simply animal, but so often interpreted as an extension of a marginalised owner. Who is the real beast? Exhibited at: 1. As part of a show, "Silt" exhibited at Mytoro Lüneburger Straße 1a 21073 Hamburg / Harburg, Germany, 6th June, 2014. 2. CPG Gallery, Annual Open Exhibition, 1. Park Approach, Southwark Park, London SE16 2UA, 9 - 24th July 2016. 3. "The Descent of the Human" Screening, Close Up Cinema, 97 Sclater St, London, E1 6HR. 20th October 2016.

Item Type:	Film / Video
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Dog, Staffy, Sonic Art, film, installation
Related records:	Abscission: A portrait of grief: A portf...
Subjects:	N Fine Arts > N Visual arts (General) For photography, see TR
Divisions:	Schools and Research Institutes > School of Creative Arts
Research Priority Areas:	Culture, Continuity, and Transformation Creative Practice and Theory
Depositing User:	Fiona Curran
Date Deposited:	01 Dec 2017 11:24
Last Modified:	01 Aug 2021 21:42
URI:	https://eprints.glos.ac.uk/id/eprint/5190

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