Sam Taylor-Wood on Content Over Form in Early Video Works
In a 1998 interview, Sam Taylor-Wood discusses her video works Travesty of a Mockery (1995) and Pent-Up (1996), emphasizing that content always precedes form in her practice. Strongly influenced by cinema, she rejects traditional narrative structures with beginnings, middles, and ends, instead favoring extracted details that she reworks. While early pieces like Slut (1993) and Fuck, Suck, Spank, Wank (1993) featured herself, she now works with actors and scenarios that are more or less predetermined.
Key facts
- Sam Taylor-Wood prioritizes content over form in her video works.
- She cites Travesty of a Mockery (1995) and Pent-Up (1996) as examples.
- She is influenced by cinema but avoids classical narrative structures.
- She prefers extracting and reworking details from film.
- Early works Slut (1993) and Fuck, Suck, Spank, Wank (1993) featured herself.
- She now works with actors and pre-set scenarios.
- The interview was published in artpress in July 1998.
Entities
Artists
- Sam Taylor-Wood
Institutions
- artpress
Sources
- artpress —