Mr Clement
GOYA and MARIE
About the artist
Mr Clement was born in Hong Kong. Graduated from Kingston University, he is currently taking a MA course in Communication Design at the Royal College of Art. He began his career at the age of 15 publishing comics in newspaper and magazines and has published several graphic novels since 1997. He plays with different media including collage and hand-made figure - videos and animations are his latest experiments.
About the work
It is a video developed from the sketches of a book I am currently working on, based on a painting of Francisco de Goya - 'The Family of the Infante Don Luis' (1784). Contrasting to the somewhat merry group portrait in the Goya painting, the video is about loneliness, waiting and time passing. In terms of visuals, I have picked up some objects from the painting such as the girl, candle, cards and the green table. The scene is set up in a room where Goya came across the girl one day. Goya observed her and said, 'I looked over from the other side of the mountain and saw that girl. I thought it was strange that she was sitting there for no one knows how long. No one knows what time she would leave either. It's like she was waiting for someone, someone who would never show up'. The dreamy girl keeps looking out the window; her eyes avoid contact with anyone but her thoughts. She is constantly counting, counting time perhaps? (but can time actually be counted?) The room is very still and quiet, she is alone there and does not show many motions or emotions, we can only guess her mood. But her counting, her thoughts, are loud and determined, like the bright colours in the opening of the video and the soundtrack near the end. The girl is absorbed in her own world. No one will ever find out her secrets.
