10.05.10 : Guest Lecture Response : Julika Rudelius

Bio : Julika Rudelius was born in Cologne and currently, lives and works in Amsterdam. She addresses a broad field of complex themes in her videos and photographs, ranging from structures of social power and prejudices to role clichés, identity, and cultural hegemony. Rudelius sees art as a form of social expression, as a communicative tool for drawing attention to seemingly trivial observations of everyday life, revealing at the same time their complex social characteristics.
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Favorite Quotes :
"When you try to cast psychopaths, it doesn't work cause you can't tell they're psychopaths till they really screw you."
"I've been working with powerful people even since. It became a sport, to see if I could get them."
**"People photograph themselves, look at the photograph, and smile like they fell in love."**
"Yeah your going to be treated like shit but one day, hopefully you'll get high enough that you can treat others like shit."
"I question seeing the idea of self or truth, even in a documentary."

**As she was speaking about her project Forever and the women of Hampton that she interviewed, she said this line. Its one of those things that make you stop and wonder, "Do I do that?" I have been taking photographs for a long time and some have been of me, but am I really that similar to those women? I don't have an answer but it really made me think about how vane the majority of people are.
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3 words : Political Vanity Videos
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Watching Julika Rudelius' videos, I really liked her presentation of her work. I learned about the split and triple screen approach and I liked her use of subtitles on every screen. After looking a some picture of her instillation, I really admired her style of presentation. I really enjoyed the presentation of Tagged with the dialog video juxtaposed with the other videos of the men putting on clothes and admiring themselves.
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Have you every had problems getting anonymous people to participate in your videos, interviews, or images? Do you every use people you know personally in your work?
She obviously had to work for several months in order to get in contact with many of the people in her videos. It took her several months to get the senators for Rites and to meet and get acquainted with the women in Forever. She talked about having casting calls for Your Blood and using her personal friends for test shots and video throughout her projects.

Would you consider yourself a feminist artist or your work “feminist art?"
Didn't get an answer. But I wouldn't consider her artwork feminist.
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Economic Primacy was the video I enjoyed the most. In this work, Rudelius selected five men for the video: a lawyer, a spin-doctor, a media advisor, a millionaire and a top manager. They are filmed pacing about in a generic office space that was specially constructed for the video. While they appear to be talking to themselves, they are responding to questions Rudelius asked them. In their 'monologues' they talk about the importance and omnipotence of money.
At the end of the lecture Rudelius talked about how these men didn't care about how they were viewed by other as long as they are wealthy. I found it interesting that none of these men found the video at all offensive, even though most of the viewers who see it find parts of it to be absurd and somewhat humorous due to the dialog.