AS SO CI ATIONS

Pin It
Associations, 1975 16mm film, colour, sound, 7 min
Associations, 1975 16mm film, colour, sound, 7 minBy John Smith

Of all the iconic images to come out of America in the past fifty years, perhaps one of the most enigmatic is a grainy black and white image of a young woman wielding an M1 carbine in a bank. It is of course, Patty Hearst, the heiress who turned

Of all the iconic images to come out of America in the past fifty years, perhaps one of the most enigmatic is a grainy black and white image of a young woman wielding an M1 carbine in a bank. It is of course, Patty Hearst, the heiress who turned urban guerrilla after being kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army in 1974. Over the years Hearst's image has been analysed by doctors, psychologists, feminists, sexologists and cultural commentators in an attempt to understand her attraction. Her photograph has been a model to support endless theories and she has been championed and vilified with the disarming frequency of a Big Brother contestant. In 2003 the artist Sharon Hayes confronted the Hearst phenomena head on in a video installation. She memorised the taped monologues Hearst sent to her parents while in captivity and then filmed herself speaking them. Behind the camera were a group of unseen participants who would correct her when she faltered or forgot a line. The combination of Hayes awkward delivery and her dependence on the hidden voices offered another compelling layer to the Hearst drama. The work, called ‘Symbionese Liberation Army’ (SLA) features in a new group show at Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge that attempts to confront the ambiguous relationship between language, history and image. Curated by Tanya Leighton it features a number of cult artists, in particular director John Smith who has consistently questioned the manipulative and subversive potential of film. With minimalist filmmaker Michael Snow and surrealist poet Marcel Broodthaers also in the mix, it promises to be a rewarding experience of misconceptions: go expecting to be out-manoeuvred.

Text by Jessica Lack

AS SO CI ATIONS, Kettle's Yard, Cambridge 20 November - January 9