Richard Serra - "Hand catching lead"
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The Film of Richard Serra, “Hand Catching Lead,” which was filmed in "1968 and first presented in 1969 shows a hand in the center of the field of view and uniformly, leaves of lead fall into the frame, while the artist’s hand is out stretched and trying to catch the falling pieces. As the first pieces are starting to fall the initial movement of the video is revealed. The transverse hand of the artist gives the viewer a point of emphasis" (http://www.centrepompidou.fr/education/ressources/ENS-mouvement_images/ENS-mouvement-images.htm). The nature of Serra’s hand is almost robotic in its functioning and juxtaposed with that is the inability to catch the falling pieces of lead. When he does catch the lead you can see the mark the lead makes each time and his hand becomes a canvas to the successes and failures in catching the lead. His hand as the video goes on is portrayed more and more as a “manly” hand with the appearance of calluses and dirty. This stereotype/perception is formed by the media and past/historical view of what a man’s hand would and should look like and the same for a woman’s. As the three minutes of video passes you can see the artists had starting to twitch and struggle to keep catching these descending pieces of lead.
Repetition is a reverberating constant throughout the piece. In videos usually a sidekick to extensive repetition is endurance. Endurance in a main focus in this piece, especially as time continues to go by. You can see the struggle in the artists had and how he is visibly pushing himself beyond the point of just catching a few pieces of lead and calling it. As Stated in Oishi’s “Interview with Patty Chang,” “Endurance is just something that lasts a little too long. The Line between comfort and discomfort is slight, and the point is to balance right on it.”
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