2010/2011
found footage video
duration: 109’
consultation: Michał Januszaniec

Among the images of the rulers of modern Europe, the iconography of Elizabeth I is worth special attention. Certainly, every ruler understood the importance of the symbolism and representation of power. That was one of the main tools of the hierarchical arrangement and the vertical direction in communication between the ruler and their subjects. Elizabeth was exceptionally aware of the power of images, so she meticulously controlled and shaped them, also because of the rare situation in which she was a woman on the throne (instead of a man as ruler). In comparison to other monarchs of modern Europe who ruled for a long time (for instance Philip II of Spain), she has few portraits. The majority of them are frontal representations of her in her glory as the Virgin Queen. “Private” renderings of her are very scarce, for example Elizabeth Playing the Lute (late 16th century) by Nicholas Hilliard. In A Thousand Deaths, Burska additionally includes the catalogue of the filmed iconography of Elizabeth, exceptionally favoured by British directors of television series (including para-documentary series) in the 20th century.

The films from which the artist composed her work also allowed her to “humanise” Queen Elizabeth I and enrich her legend with new attributes. We can see private situations, the struggle against convention, hesitation and weakness (expressed in the words: “Am I made of stone?”), ageing (an obsessive removal of mirrors) – in fact, everything that is missing from earlier iconography and that has so far been compensated for by literary fantasy. The material on which the artist worked reveals an extraordinary consistency in the Queen’s legend – the same gestures, words and actions move fluently from one film to another, from one actress to another; a catalogue of recurring gestures that suggests a precisely worked-out iconography.

excerpt from the text The Past as a Site of Fantasy. On Historical Representations in Relation to Bogna Burska’s Found Footage Films by Stanisław Ruksza, catalogue Films. Bogna Burska, ed. Aleksandra Grzonkowska, published by Wyspa Art Institute, Bunkier Sztuki Gallery of Contemporary Art, BWA Zielona Góra, and the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk, 2014

sources:

Anne of the Thousand Days reż. Charles Jarrott

Elizabeth reż. David Starkey/Mark Fielder

Elizabeth reż. Shekhar Kapur

Elizabeth I reż. Tom Hooper

Elizabeth R reż. Roderick Graham

Elizabeth: The Golden Age reż. Shekhar Kapur

Fire Over England reż. William K. Howard

Gunpowder, Treason and Plot reż. Gillies MacKinnon

Henry VIII reż. Pete Travis

Mary of Scotland reż. John Ford/Leslie Goodwins

Mary, Queen reż. Scots by Charles Jarrott

Orlando reż. Sally Potter

The Other Boleyn Girl reż. Justin Chadwick

The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex reż. Michael Curtiz

Shakespeare in Love reż. John Madden

The Six Wives of Henry VIII reż. Mary Cranitch/David Starkey

The Six Wives of Henry VIII reż. Naomi Capon/John Glenister

The Tudors season 2 reż. Michael Hirst

The Virgin Queen reż. Coky Giedroyc

Young Bess reż. George Sidney