It is without question that Dibb is known most widely for his collaboration with writer and art critic John Berger on the 1972 television series Ways of Seeing. In its four episodes, Berger dissects hidden ideologies in art — the continuity of the male gaze, oil paintings as a marker of class status, and the contemporary relevance of Walter Benjamin’s seminal 1935 essay The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. The series uniquely transformed the public’s understanding of art and its relationship to Western society; Dibb’s deft and clever visual language as its central tool in its clarity.
Dibb’s approach to documentary through the decades is armed with wit and a sharp attention to detail, ultimately concerned with revealing the idiosyncrasies of culture as a path to understanding humankind. Even still, his films remain intensely personal, guided by Dibb’s own personal obsessions and fascinations. The result is a body of work that is intellectualized but above all else marked by sharp style and a sense of close and self-directed learning. In a 2012 interview, Dibb credited his influence of European filmmakers such as Chris Marker and Jean-Luc Godard. Though his works were commissioned by the BBC, an official UK government body, and therefore were made for mainstream television, he strived to portray his subjects on art and life with an understanding of art and life in his own right. Where a traditional documentary might effectively strike a whiplash of talking heads, Dibb’s work — ranging from Marxist literature, improvisational jazz, histories of Granada as part of Islamic Spain — all provides context through strings of observable moments which might be otherwise missed or taken for granted.
A Listening Eye: The Films of Mike Dibb
January 8 – March 26, 2021
Films posted Fridays at 11am GMT
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