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John Smith

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John Smith, The Girl Chewing Gum, 1976
John Smith, The Girl Chewing Gum, 1976

John Smith

The Girl Chewing Gum, 1976
16mm film transferred to HD video
12 minutes
Edition of 5 plus 2 artist's proofs
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Further images

  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 1 ) John Smith, The Black Tower, 1985-87
  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 2 ) John Smith, The Black Tower, 1985-87
  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 3 ) John Smith, The Black Tower, 1985-87
“The Girl Chewing Gum was made during a rich period of avant-garde practice in which many filmmakers, both in Britain and beyond, sought to dismantle the illusionist transparency of dominant...
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“The Girl Chewing Gum was made during a rich period of avant-garde practice in which many filmmakers, both in Britain and beyond, sought to dismantle the illusionist transparency of dominant cinema. Most of those invested in this project took up a focus on filmic materiality, refusing the possibility of a ‘window on the world’ in favour of a modernist concern with the cinematic apparatus. In The Girl Chewing Gum, Smith proceeded somewhat differently: his interest lay above all in interrogating the conventions that structured cinematic signification through a reflexive deployment of those very same conventions, rather than any out-and-out negation of them. The Girl Chewing Gum offers a playful yet trenchant exploration of the role that language – and particularly voiceover – plays in the production of filmic meaning and asserts the absolute impossibility of immediacy and neutrality. But despite its anti-illusionist criticality, the film remains deeply engaged with narrative and humour, two terms not often associated with British avant-garde cinema of the 1970s.”
- Erika Balsom, ‘In Focus: The Girl Chewing Gum’, Tate Research Publication, 2015
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