CCS: WORD AND IMAGE ASSESSMENT - GRACE DOLAN - MAYA DEREN
My chosen image maker is Maya Deren. Born Eleonora Derenkowska in Kiev, she was a UkrainianAmerican experimental lm maker, choreographer, writer, photographer and lm theorist1. She is seen to be one of the most in uential people in American avant-garde cinema as well as writing two books.2
FIGURE 1: MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON - 1943
Meshes of the Afternoon is the work Deren is most commonly associated with. The image shows a woman (played by Deren) gazing out a window as the re ection of the trees outside shows on the glass. As the studium of the image, the woman creates a sense of interest in the viewer as there is an intimate nature about the shot. There is a connotation that the image represents a detachment from reality and the world around oneself. This distorted and “outside looking in” signi cation is evident as the short lms central theme is dreamscapes and delayed forward movement3. Some believe that Meshes connotes an artistic and eccentric snapshot of her relationship with her newlywed husband Alexander Hammid, also a talented lmmaker. He was the one who taught her the mechanics of lmmaking so she could render her vision, thus creating a visionary psychodrama4.
FIGURE 2: AT LAND - 1944
Fig 2 shows three women, including Deren, kneeling and standing to form a triangular formation in front of the ocean and its horizon. At rst glance, this image could de nitely signify a feminist studium since Derens work is widely recognised by and has had a profound in uence on feminist art- lm makers5. However, as well as this shot; At Land features a myriad of settings in which Deren and her fellow actors are climbing, crawling and standing amongst speci c 1"Maya
Deren - Wikipedia". En.Wikipedia.Org, 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_Deren.
"Maya Deren: Seven Films That Guarantee Her Legend". British Film Institute, 2021, https:// www2.b .org.uk/news-opinion/news-b /features/maya-deren-meshes-of-the-afternoon. 2
“Done and Undone: Meshes of the Afternoon and Witch’s Cradle.” Maya Deren: Incomplete Control, by Sarah Keller, Columbia University Press, NEW YORK, 2015, pp. 31–80. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.7312/kell16220.5. Accessed 23 Mar. 2021. 3
"Maya Deren: Seven Films That Guarantee Her Legend". British Film Institute, 2021, https:// www2.b .org.uk/news-opinion/news-b /features/maya-deren-meshes-of-the-afternoon. 4
"AMERICANA: "The World Of Maya Deren" By Zsanett Varga". Americanaejournal.Hu, 2021, http://americanaejournal.hu/vol11no2/varga.
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