(Un)Masked: Brian Bress

Artist Brian Bress, born in 1975 in Norfolk, Virginia, combines his passion for two-dimensional painting, interest in three-dimensional sculpture, and fascination with film art to create collage-like videos that appear fantastical, experimental, psychedelic, and performative, all at the same time. Bress’ playful videos have a synesthetic quality that push the boundaries of art to the point of entertainment, and his creativity manifests itself in every element of production--from set design and costuming to acting and directing. Bress’ formal training in painting and collage prompts a similar visual aesthetic in his filmmaking; he values the flattening element of video art, a similarly fixed image as that of painting. Bress’ unusual approach is realized through his ability to masterfully stitch together video segments to create a narrative that reads, not as a logical, linear story, but rather an unconscious combination of fractioned parts that ultimately create a whole. As the arts forum Art Slant described, “his visual language is a mixture of 80s music video surrealism and a collage so floating and strange it feels more composed of random poetry than precise meaning.”[1] With eye-catching visuals and unconventional artistic techniques, Bress truly absorbs viewers into his videos. Yet once they’re in, he fights against comfortable expectations of the normative. By showing subjects in varying degrees of bodily distress, Bress urges viewers to self-reflect and consider their own physicality within their surroundings.

Janus (Max) captures a man with his face painted the same pattern as the background in order to blend into his surroundings. Animal like, the subject’s determination to camouflage himself within his environment falls short as his bodily trembles accentuate the distinction between subject and background. Upon viewing the video, viewers feel the arduousness in sitting completely still, having to come to terms with the reality that pure bodily sensations, who you are and how you exist in the world, prevent your ability to blend in, completely unnoticed, with the aesthetics of your surroundings.

Similarly, Bress composes Family (Devin, John, Jason, Lewis) in the tradition of a typical family portrait--a father, mother, and their two sons--posing with their arms around one another. However, the characters appear faceless, masked in neutral colored cloth. Aside from their concealed identity, they dress in the appropriate clothing: suit and tie, blouse, sweatshirt, and tee shirt. Based on outward appearance, Devin, John, Jason, and Lewis are America’s best family, but the masks distort this unrealistic ideal. It challenges their true selves and their social interactions and alludes to a more flawed identity that, according to social standards, must remain hidden. Furthermore, the video portraiture medium seems to have a broader social significance. Its initial appearance as a static image that evolves into a video, a medium that is inherently in motion, signals the static nature of “perfect” familial structures despite changing times.

Brian Bress, Family (Devin, John, Jason, Lewis), 2012

High definition single-channel video (color)

15min., 41 sec., loop

Brian Bress, Janus (Max), 2012

High definition single-channel video (color)

16 min., 57 sec., loop

(Un)Masked introductory text: http://artscurated.blogspot.com/2012/04/unmasked.html

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[1] Brian Bress (Artist), interview by Andres Berardini, “Rack Room: Interview with Brian Bress,” Art Slant, Record, Nov. 2010, http://www.artslant.com/ny/artists/rackroom/596.