Art de Plumb
By Don Rittner
UPDATE: The Spectrum Theater on Delaware Avenue in Albany will be showing a sample of Shannon’s movies as serials before the showing of “A Better Life” starting this Friday and lasting for a week (Aug 12-18). There are two samples of work being presented. A three minute set of “Commercial” shorts opening the 3:40 and 9:25 show and a three minute set of “Matinee” on the 12:30 and 6:45 shows.
Art mediums come and go and some just stay the same or evolve into newer ways to give the same results. Paintings on cave walls were replaced by canvas, which in turn has been replaced by Photoshop. Film has gone through an evolution starting as soundless acetate in black and white to “Talkies,” to “Technicolor” in small and large formats, and finally to 3D digital and IMAX so popular today.
And then there are those that still use Polaroid when they can find it, or insist on 35 mm Kodak Tri-X in their Canon T-90, or shoot with a Keystone Super 8 camera. Does it really matter what the tool is as long as you get to, well, EXPRESS YOURSELF?
Shannon Plumb wanted to be a writer. She grew up in Schenectady, NY, but when her parents divorced she and her mother moved in with her grandmother in nearby Rotterdam. After finishing Mohonasen High, she went to Albany’s Junior College of Albany and then to SUNY at New Paltz and majored in acting and theater.
Shannon Plumb, 2011. Photo by Don Rittner.
Shannon eventually found herself in New York City trying to become a writer but most of her friends were photographers and one of them bought her a Super 8 video camera for $25. Shannon used herself as a test subject and when the film was processed she knew she had found a new voice, a way to tell her stories and thoughts about the world. Ironically it was using silence not the written or spoken word. And ironically, while she tried to be serious with her videos they were always coming out on the humorous side so she tried to figure out how to get her serious messages imbedded in a comedic form.
Beginning in 1999 Shannon began showing her creations that consisted of short Super 8 stories that lasted three to four minutes long. She worked as a cocktail waitress in NYC video lounges, interesting places that project videos on the wall after 9 PM. The owner of the video lounge would let Shannon play some of her videos with the others and she listened to what patrons would have to say about her work without them knowing it was her creations.
Her real break came when she began showing her creations at the Anthology of Film Archives, an international center for the preservation, study, and exhibition of film and video. It specializes on promoting independent, experimental, and avant-garde cinema and is located at 32 Second Avenue in Manhattan. It was founded in 1969 by avant-garde extraordinaire Jonas Mekas and five associates. Originally, Mekas was the director of the Film-Makers’ Cinematheque, an early establishment for avant-garde films. His vision was to establish a permanent home where the increasing number of new independent or avant-garde films could be shown on a regular basis. Anthology opened in 1970.
Shannon began showing her videos at Anthology and one day Mekas called and told her she was going to have her own show. It packed the house. Mekas gave a speech honoring her work and between sips of Vodka and Russian dancing, Shannon was on her way to becoming an avant-garde filmmaker in her own right!
What is remarkable about Shannon’s work is each “episode” of her creations is only 3 or 4 minutes long although she will create a longer 20 minutes series, sort of an album, or a compilation of pieces around a theme. The absence of sound, therefore dialogue, means there is no language barrier and the meaning of her pieces cross cultural and ethnic boundaries as her subject themes are universal. Shannon uses humor and comedy in her pieces but pay attention closely as there are deeper meanings in the subjects she chooses.
Her performances are done without the normal editing you would do if you were shooting 16 or 35mm film. She has to do her acting within the confines of that little sphere of Super 8mm video of 3 to 4 minutes, so she is self editing as she performs. What is more amazing is while you watch the pieces there is no hesitation on her part. She has clearly thought out her story well and even though there is room to improvise it appears like she has rehearsed them forever, yet she admits she does not rehearse too much as it stifles reacting to the moment when a prop fails or at an improv moment.
Others have compared her to Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin – similarly performing all her own pieces. Ken Johnson in the New York Times wrote: “Ms. Plumb is hilarious. Comparing her to Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton might sound like a stretch, but it’s not.” Can’t disagree there but while she is compared to comedic actors there is also a great deal of seriousness in her work. Some of her work reminds me of the German Impressionist films of the early 20th century. She also reminds me of some of the women directors who came before her blazing trails in silent movies of the early part of the 20th century like Lois Weber or Alice Guy-Blaché.
She may use humor or comedy but there are also some serious messages being sent out there.
Her latest piece Window # 1 is a good case in point. It depicts a Muslim women sitting near a window dressed in a black abaya and using a fan to cool herself off. She does this by sticking the fan under her abaya and making all kinds of distortions while looking out the “window” to see if anyone can see her. It is very funny but if you look closely in the window you can see the reflection of an American Flag. You can interpret this many ways but I read it as Shannon’s take on the expression of free speech, tolerance, and women’s rights. Is the subject in America, home of the free, only to be trapped by Muslim tradition? Is she striking out though still afraid to be caught, hence looking out the window to make sure no one catches her? Or simply that in America you can dress anyway you want regardless of religion? Perhaps it is simpler; she is just trying to stay cool?
Screen shot from Shannon's The Window Series. Source: shannonplumb.com.
In her piece titled Rattles and Cherries, you see a young woman clumsily trying to perform a burlesque-like set of motions at home only to see her at the end pick up her young son and nurse him. And what is the moral of the story? Am I still sexy after kids?
Her series called Matinee performed in 2009 is one of my favorites and was commissioned by Performa 2009. Performa is an annual performance art event in NYC that is well hard to describe unless you go to it. Matinee was designed to take situations commonly found in “going to the movies” and recreate it in a humorous way.
You can watch many of her videos at www.shannonplumb.com.
Shannon considers herself an artist and calls her work art though it is video and makes it difficult to show in a regular art galley. However her work has done well in a gallery setting and before it closed a NYC gallery was her home for six years. Her frustration with that scenario though is the audiences tend to be too small and somewhat an elite group of art lovers. She loves the art world and embraces the freedom that it allows but she wants her audiences to be made up of everyday people not just art critics and connoisseurs.
I would call her a video anthropologist since it is obvious that she studies people; their frailties, passions, nuisances, and idiosyncrasies, and in defining those very much as a visual diary of every day humanity. Her inspiration is indeed people and the inspiration comes from everywhere.
Shannon storyboards her videos before she performs them. Photo by Don Rittner.
She talks about herself growing up in an imperfect world in an imperfect family and so tried to grow up in a perfect world but realized she wasn’t perfect. As a result she focuses “on the imperfections of people.” She decided to do her own movies because she felt she would never get to Hollywood due to the fact that she thought she was not perfect.
Over the last decade Shannon has had many solo exhibitions in NYC and in countries like Austria, Germany, France, and Spain. She has also appeared in many group exhibitions and selected screenings as well. Her work has been written up in newspapers such as the New York Times and various magazines.
She is hoping that one day her videos will become serials in the movies. Serials were commonly played before features when I was a kid in the 60s. I’m talking to some local theaters locally to see if they will show a few while she is in town.
I’ve only know Shannon for a short time, though I did find out that I may have worked with her mother in the social services area in the 1980s in Troy – it’s a small world. Shannon is also married to Derek Cianfrance, movie director (Blue Valentine) who is here in Schenectady shooting his latest movie “The Place Beyond The Pines.”
Her relationship with PINES star Ryan Gosling got her in a situation that few others could hope to find themselves in. Ryan was asked by movie God Harvey Weinstein to perform a song at the annual AMFAR show last year at Cannes. Ryan asked Shannon to accompany him and mock Harvey in a sketch. They had to audition first for Harvey who loved it. You can see their sketch on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAIQmsX5A5A.
Shannon has not given up on writing. She is currently working on a movie script of her own. However, keep an eye out for her video work as I believe she hasn’t reached her full potential yet and is destined to make a major mark in the art world. In her words, Shannon says “It’s hard to put the everyday person into the art world. Sometimes, you can put the art world into every day.” That is her goal.
After spending some time with Shannon, I can sum up the experience in a sentence. Not only is she one of the most gifted and sweetest people you will ever meet, she is simply Plumb funny!
Don Rittner - Historian At Large 