Clara and Dario (second version)

Artist James Coleman (b. 1941)

Date1982

MediumProjected Image (16mm film) with recorded narration

ClassificationsFilm

Credit LineCollection & image © Hugh Lane Gallery. Purchased from the Artist, 1986. © James Coleman.

Object number1706

DescriptionJames Coleman is one of our greatest contemporary artists. Since the 1970's he has been exploring the creative possibilities of audio-visual technology which has resulted in brilliant and innovative slide and video installations. Addressing issues of perception he has moved from works where the human presence is implied to those in which people are the focal point. His art focuses on perception and the ambiguities that exist in how we see and hear the world and recall experience.

Clara and Dario (1982) was the first film work the gallery purchased. It is the second version of a work of the same title he made in Italy in 1976. While the first version consisted of two simultaneous slide projectors in continuous cycle with synchronized audiotape, this work is on looped film. Clara and Dario are dressed in early 20th century costume and their images are projected in an oval format. They are separated and a couple. Our interpretation of the relationship changes as the conversation unfolds recalling an earlier experience they had in Lake Como and their desire to return. Past and future are fused in the present through a dialogue which is partly conducted in the third person and their future plans and past experiences discussed in the present tense. The conflicting recollections of a shared memory define their individuality . As in all James Coleman's work the apparently simple presentation belies its conceptual complexity.

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