Rick Buckley (GBR)
Progress/Regress
2003
DVD, 97 x 74 cm video projection on white glass suspended above eye-level, 15 min. loop, stereo sound
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Rick Buckley’s work Progress/Regress is a confronting manifestation of the internal human duel between raw emotion and compliance with the rules of appropriate behavior. The face of a man, with all of its magnified, unflattering features, fills the screen and upon first glance, forcefully challenges the viewer. Reduced to a set of bad teeth and a jaw in need of a shave, the face begins to laugh in a slow, distorted manner, saliva attaching itself to the gums, to the teeth, in painfully drawn out way. As the video progresses, the mouth roars on, incomprehensibly hysterical, gathering steam as the macabre amusement seeping from the man’s vocal chords rises in pitch. The tone increases and the work intensely assaults our auditory boundaries, compounded by the source of the noise that becomes visually impossible to deal with. Just as we think we cannot possibly take any more, the scene (audibly) retreats and seems to revert itself back to its slower pace, but only until the loop begins again.
Despite the fact that the work lasts only 15 minutes, it inevitably captivates the audience for much longer, mainly due to its after effects. An initial reaction is to recoil in disgust, perturbed by the way this mouth so brazenly loses control. This man seems unstoppable, unreachable. If we brave it out, what ensues on the part of the viewer can range from an instinctual desire to join in the laughter to an outright refusal to deal with the work at all.
Reminding us of our awkwardness, of those moments when we accidentally leak out of ourselves, Progress/Regress seems to tap into our underlying battle between our carefully presented bodies and our messy, emotional selves. As we listen in to this cacophony, composed and safe in our outer shells, what reveals itself is perhaps not the disgust felt towards this man, but a sort of envy of how easy it seems for him to let go.
Biography
Rick Buckley (Great Britain, 1962) studied Fine Art at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf (GER) under Nam June Paik and Nan Hoover. He uses video, drawings, sculptures and photography to create his work, which has been presented in several solo and group exhibitions such as Ha Ha Ha at the Netherlands Media Art Institute (Amsterdam, NED, 1996); We love you / We love you not, Video Art Prize Bremen; Neues Museum, (GER, 1998); Certain things are never said / Said things are never certain at Mirko Mayer Galerie (Cologne, GER, 2000); The domestic civil wars at the VTO gallery (London, GBR, 2003); and Far away and too close, South First (New York, USA, 2003). Rick Buckley lives and works in London, Great Britain.