In her new video installation, Melbourne-based filmmaker Jasmin Tarasin seeks to capture the elusive soul & spirit of performance. Featuring a cast of celebrated musicians, 'Live' is a highlight of this month’s Sydney Festival.
Ever since she was a teenage girl growing up in Newcastle and sneaking into raucous concerts, Jasmin Tarasin has been obsessed with the live music experience. The filmmaker knew what mattered to her the most – the musicians whose very performance captivated her and transcended the confines of the venue – but she didn’t have a phrase to describe it. It was a powerful feeling she couldn’t say aloud.
However, three years ago, while holidaying in Spain with a group of girlfriends and reading the poetry of Federico Garcia Lorca, Tarasin discovered the right word: duende, which roughly translates as “having soul”, and it applies to those who perform with a heightened state of expression and emotion. As soon as she heard it, Tarasin knew she had to capture the rare musicians who had duende.
The result is Live, a fascinating video installation that has its world premiere at Sydney’s Lower Town Hall in January as part of the 2011 Sydney Festival. Tarasin will present more than 20 of Australia’s and the world’s most popular musicians – including Jarvis Cocker, Sarah Blasko, Feist and Rufus Wainwright – in exclusive filmed performances she hopes will both pare down and redefine what it is we want from those who perform for us.
“The whole premise of this exhibition is energy exchange. It’s about particular performers you feel you share a familiarity with because you’ve shared an experience watching them, and because of their performance style,” explains the 34-year-old. “It’s not about whether certain music is good or not, this is about live performance.”
Tarasin has directed documentaries (The Closet Tales Of Australian Fashion), TV commercials (Commonwealth Bank) and numerous music video clips. The fact that she’s shooting acclaimed Canadian-American songwriter Rufus Wainwright the very next day doesn’t faze her. She’s had the benefit of preparation and good luck – of the initial list of 20 names she dashed off in Spain, well over half are participating in Live.
The installation, which Tarasin has designed with internationally renowned exhibition and lighting designer Bruce Ramus, whose credits include several groundbreaking U2 stadium tours, will fill one wall of the darkened space with four giant screens, each about 5m across, cycling through five videos each. Wireless headphones will track between the artist’s performances, while plasma screens in small booths will provide a more intimate rendition.
“It’s about stripping back the distraction around a core performance: take away the big stage, big lighting and big guitar back-up,” notes Tarasin, who filmed each artist under strictly similar conditions. The artist had to perform a song of choice solo, shot in black and white by an unmoving camera in just one or two takes. Tarasin gave them no direction and each participant found his or her own station. Julian Hamilton of electronic duo The Presets performed their signature hit, My People, a cappella, while the intensity of violinist Warren Ellis, Nick Cave’s musical foil, left the director in tears. “You get a real sense that you’re in the room with them performing just for you; like they’ve walked into your bedroom and started belting out a song. It’s about experiencing performers who perform in an emotional and soulful way that moves you by watching it.”
Most musicians have reacted positively to Tarasin’s concept. The trick was getting to them in the first place. Each artist was pursued, beginning with an initial letter that was usually intercepted, and sometimes answered without consultation, by management.
“A few management teams said ‘no’, then the artists found out about the exhibition and contacted me directly. They had no idea they’d been previously invited to take part.”
Tarasin, who plans to film more performances overseas for a revised future version of Live that may visit London and New York, has nothing but praise for her subjects who gave time free and performed in the starkest of settings, bringing their duende to the fore.
“It’s about their interpretation of my concept, rather than my vision of their song,” says Tarasin, who concedes that after such an elevating experience it’s hard for her to return to making commercial video clips. Her next project is a TV documentary about Australian women, so she plans to enjoy a quiet time of archival research this year. But when Live premieres, Jasmin Tarasin will be present not just as the curator, but as a music fan. “The reason I wanted to make this,” she says, “is so that I can go myself.”
Source Qantas The Australian Way January 2011