Attended a screening the work of Manuel Saiz, an event co-hosted by Instituto Cervantes and Castlefield Gallery. Saiz’ solo show at Castlefield consisted of videos exploring cinematic tropes and a diagrammatic poster questioning the nature of art.

Kwong of Castlefield Gallery and color bars in ornately arched hall at Instituto Cervantes.

The video screening helped me to better appreciate Saiz’ ongoing themes (more cinematic tropes, mimesis, and the uncanny) and strategies (mirroring, displacement).

Parallel Universes Meet at Infinity is an especially enjoyable two-channel installation. On one channel, an animal shifts its view, in the second channel, a human mimics every movement. It’s a feat of acting, as well as a coded investigation into mimicry and representation, and what art itself is or achieves.

The last video made me laugh, cry, and beg for it to end.

It’s the documentation for an installation called Public Displays of Affection (click on Public Displays of Affection on this page), in which the artist motorized a track for video camera to shoot 360-degree videos with soaring instrumentals. It’s a parody, of course, on the cheesy romantic, triumphant long kiss, but I couldn’t help but tear up as couples kissed and families hugged each other. The artist is not so sentimental. Maybe it’s because Valentine’s Day is around the corner, but the video made me want to tell the world forget the rest, just love your beloved.