I was unfortunately unable to attend any of the events focused around Euan MacDonald’s visit to PSU. While listening to the recorded interview between Mr. MacDonald and classmates the conversation around the comment “Conceptual Art is pointing at things” interested me. MacDonald did not wish to frame his work as pointing but rather isolating content. This lead to a discussion of his piece SCLPTR that is a shot of a truck, with the plates reading SCLPTR, hauling a large statue of Buddha. He took the video while riding in another car and by the manner in which its shot seems as if he came upon it by accident. By editing and slowing down the video he claims he isolates that content that is being shot. You are given the chance to understand what it is you are looking at beyond the initial humor you instantly identify. He talked at length about the commercial qualities of religion playing out in the video.
When I saw the clip online it brought to mind something I had seen on YouTube not too long ago. In the video an elderly man sits in a lazy boy on the back of a moving truck dozing off as he speeds down a highway. Looking not much different then the Buddha statue, the videos both invoke a humorous response. What I thought about is if I slow down the video as MacDonald did with his and placed it side by side does it isolate content that then can be ingested the same as his video. I leave that deconstruction to you.
