Bay of Pigs, 2012
sequence of digital files, black and white, sound, 45 min.(excerpt: 3.56), loop

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WILLIAM E. JONES is an artist and experimental filmmaker known for using as raw material, the nearly inexhaustible reservoir of images that can be found in film archives, on Internet, TV and DVD.

Working across prints, films and installations, JONES’ ambition is to “unsettle or subvert unthinking and habitual ways of seeing”: older narrative structures are unraveled to create new stories, images are recontextualized to produce new meaning, and different edits of the film footage are used to highlight new political or emotional significances. His sources range from vintage 1960s footage of police investigations to imagery from the US National Archives as well as legal data, pop music, and personal memories.

‘Bay of Pigs’ (2012) sees black and white footage from the failed US invasion of Cuba in 1961, taken from the Cuban documentary Girón (1974) mirrored along a horizontal line that divides the works frame equally into two halves, one section then mirrored left to right to create a kaleidoscopic effect. (…) The films disorientating soundtrack is taken from a numbers radio station, which broadcast coded messages in numerical strings – adding to the confusion, these stations are yet to be officially acknowledged politically. Taking cuts from the Cuban film (which mixes documentary with reconstructions, and has an inherently Cuban perspective) JONES puts emphasis on the disorientating nature of war, for those involved in combat and those deciphering its meaning at home. – STEVEN CAIRNS

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Good news:

• His work is currently on view at The Modern Institute, Glasgow until May 25, 2013
• On May 19th 2013 MACK will be publishing Imitation of Christ by WILLIAM E. JONES to coincide with an exhibition of the same title opening at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles

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