The Proposition: Rolf Belgum

Biography

Works

The Wild Condition
Rolf Belgum

The Fox Terrier was the most popular dog of the 1920s, and his origin predates Julius Caesar. The images in this exhibit come from my Wire Haired Fox Terrier. I asked a friend of mine who teaches philosophy if he thought it was possible for a person to fall deeply in love with a dog. He told me he would research this and get back to me. I never heard from him again.

I find myself utterly transfixed by the simplest movements or expressions of this dog. I am spell bound by his spectacular form and anatomy. I have tried to record these observations in a way that is true to both of us. Three areas of interest inform these works.

1. Body Language

I am interested in exploring the ways in which the most intimate and private aspects of life - the emotions - are made visual and public through the physical expression of the body. I believe in the "truth" of the body's gesture, posture, and movement. I have drawn from Muybridge and Marey's studies of motion through still photography. In the photographic sequence, we witness the subtle or dramatic changes in the body's relationship from position to position and experience motion through stillness.

2. Written Language

Animal forms have played a central role in the evolution of writing and symbols. Hieroglyphs and pictograms create astonishing connections between anatomy and typography. In Love Letter From A Fox Terrier, I used close-ups of my dog's nose, tongue, teeth, smile, and paw as modern hieroglyphs and punctuated this imaginary sentence witht tiny full body black and white shots.

3. Cinematic Language

My background as a filmmaker has been instrumental in the shooting and editing of these works. Central to my work is the sacredness of personality and expression. These ideas drive my shooting and editing decisions and my narratives emerge from a body living a story rather than telling one. My goal is to work these stills into a moving document exploring the complex relationships between humans and animals, motion and stillness, the wild and the domestic.

"The study of expression is difficult owning to the movements being often extremely slight, and of a fleeting nature. A difference may be clearly slight, and of a fleeting nature. A difference may be clearly perceived, and yet it may be impossible, at least I have found it so, to state in what the difference consists. When we witness any deep emotion, our sympathy is so strongly excited, that close observation is forgotten or rendered almost impossible."

- The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals

In 1872, Darwin's The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals was published. This text was the first scientific book in English to contain photographic reproductions. The photographic limitations were substantial for Darwin. Exposure times varied from several seconds to a minute. Darwin dreamed of a camera which could record the transitory qualities of emotion. The eleven photos presented here were shot at 1/1000th of a second. I would love to know what he thought of them.

--- The Expression of the Emotions in the Wire Haired Fox Terrier: Homage to Darwin