South African artist Candice Breitz examines pop culture's ability to link those from all over the globe. Popular music and movies have become a way through which we can connect to others, and, for better or for worse, have taught us lessons and set examples. In her series entitled Babel, Breitz digested hours of MTV music videos and culled single syllables from famous performers. The artist broke the songs down to just the basic units of language, and was left with looping videos of the musicians singing "pa", "ma", and "no no". These early words are recognizable in numerous languages. Breitz describes these clips as "mechanical and brutal" reiterations.
In another series, Breitz linked classic pop love songs through personal pronouns. Almost every romantic ballad contains the words "I" and "you", as a place for listeners to enter their emotions into the songs. She selected videos of The Carpenters, Olivia Newton-John, Annie Lennox, and Whitney Huston singing their well known hits, but reduced down to just the aforementioned pronouns. Breitz positioned two monitors, each playing a video of the same performer, right across from each other. While one monitor sings "I" and "me" the opposing screen wails "you". The viewer is caught between a romantic battle waged by two voices of the same musician.
I admire the way Candice Breitz respects the material which she is working with. She mentioned the artist's responsibility to free the material from its original context in order to make it his or her own. Her videos feel both familiar and alien all at once. What we are experiencing goes well beyond the original purpose of the source matter, yet it is all performed by familiar faces. You can clearly tell that Breitz is a fan of the original music and movies from which she samples, as evidenced by her recent series dealing with genuine fanatics.
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