{{Infobox film | director = Joyce Wieland | starring = Joyce Wieland | cinematography = Joyce Wieland | studio = Corrective Films | released = {{Film date|1965}} | runtime = 13 minutes }} '''''Water Sark''''' is a 1965 experimental short film by Canadian artist Joyce Wieland.
==Description== ''Water Sark'' begins with opening credits made out of paper letters placed on a lamp. Wieland's reflection is briefly seen, showing her holding an 8 mm camera. The film captures several items on a table: a teapot, a bowl, a glass of water, plastic flowers, and a fern. These objects are explored visually as Wieland uses water, mirrors, and camera movements to manipulate the image.<ref name="armatage-cws">{{cite journal |last=Armatage |first=Kay |author-link=Kay Armatage |year=1987 |title=The Feminine Body: Joyce Wieland's ''Water Sark'' |journal=Canadian Woman Studies |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=84–88}}</ref>
After this initial passage, Wieland's body appears among the other visual elements. Additional objects are introduced. A prism and lens are introduced are used to reshape the image, and Wieland begins to play with rubber gloves, a toy boat, a magnifying glass, and transparent plastic. The film closes with a shot of water being grazed by Wieland's fingers.<ref name="armatage-cws"/>
==Production== Wieland was an multidisciplinary artist who had worked in painting, quilting, and soft sculpture.{{sfn|Lind|2001|p=147–149}} She made ''Water Sark'' while living in New York. Wieland began work in 1963, while completing the films ''Patriotism'' and ''Patriotism Part II''.{{sfn|Elder|1999|p=17}}{{sfn|Nowell|2001|pp=228–229}} She characterized it as a "desperate self-portrait", which she viewed as an extension of her drawing practice.{{sfn|Lind|2001|p=133}} She experimented with LSD during production of the film and described the results as having "to do very much with acid and light".{{sfn|Nowell|2001|p=236}}
The film's experimental jazz soundtrack was recorded by pianist Carla Bley, songwriter Ray Jessel, and trumpeter Michael Mantler.{{sfn|Bliss|2020|pp=103–105}} Wieland selected the title ''Water Sark'' because she viewed water as a central element of the film symbolizing creativity and the unconscious. The word ''sark'' was a filler word she associated with boats, but which had no actual meaning.<ref name="armatage-cws"/>
==Release and reception== The National Film Board considered distributing the film, but the representative who viewed it became enraged by the image of Wieland's breasts and berated Wieland before chasing her out of the building.{{sfn|Nowell|2001|pp=235–236}}
The film received little attention upon its initial release.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=La France |first=Samuel |year=2015 |title=Joyce Wieland: Word of Mouth |url=https://cinema-scope.com/features/joyce-wieland-word-of-mouth/ |magazine=Cinema Scope |issue=63 |access-date=}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Zemans |first=Joyce |author-link=Joyce Zemans |year=1998 |title=A Tale of Three Women: The Visual Arts In Canada / A Current Account/ing |url= |journal=Canadian Art Review |volume=25 |issue=1/2 |page=107 |jstor=42630597}}</ref> Peter Goddard wrote that the film's "greatness is that of inspired, intuitive filmmaking, not just great feminist filmmaking."<ref>{{cite news |last=Goddard |first=Peter |author-link=Peter Goddard (journalist) |date=February 10, 1996 |title=Screenings focus on Wieland's films |work=Toronto Star |page=H10}}</ref>
Paul Arthur suggests that Hollis Frampton's use of a rubber glove in ''Poetic Justice'' (1972) is a reference to ''Water Sark''.{{sfn|Arthur|2007|p=65}}
==References== {{reflist}}
==Bibliography== {{refbegin}} * {{cite book |last=Arthur |first=Paul |year=2007 |editor-last=Blaetz |editor-first=Robin |chapter=Different/Same/Both/Neither: The Polycentric Cinema of Joyce Wieland |title=Women's Experimental Cinema: Critical Frameworks |publisher=Duke University Press |isbn=978-0-8223-4023-2}} * {{cite book |last=Bliss |first=Lauren |year=2020 |title=The Maternal Imagination of Film and Film Theory |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=978-3-030-45896-6}} * {{cite book |editor-last=Elder |editor-first=Kathryn |year=1999 |title=The Films of Joyce Wieland |publisher=Toronto International Film Festival Group |isbn=978-0-9682969-2-9}} * {{cite book |last=Lind |first=Jane |year=2001 |title=Joyce Wieland: Artist on Fire |publisher=James Lorimer & Company |isbn=978-1-55028-695-3}} * {{cite book |last=Nowell |first=Iris |year=2001 |title=Joyce Wieland: A Life in Art |publisher=ECW Press |isbn=978-1-55022-476-4}} {{refend}}
==Further reading== {{refbegin}} * {{cite journal |last=Armatage |first=Kay |author-link=Kay Armatage |year=1989 |title=Joyce Wieland, Feminist Documentary, and the Body of the Work |journal=Canadian Journal of Political and Social Theory |volume=13 |issue=1/2 |page=98}} * {{cite journal |last=MacDonald |first=Shana |year=2015 |title=Voicing Dissonance: Resistant Soundscapes in 1960s Feminist Experimental Film |journal=Feminist Media Histories |volume=1 |issue=4 |publisher=University of California Press |pages=93–96 |doi=10.1525/fmh.2015.1.4.89}} * {{cite journal |last=Rabinovitz |first=Lauren |year=1982 |title=The Development of Feminist Strategies in the Experimental Films of Joyce Wieland |journal=Film Reader |issue=5 |publisher= |pages=133–134}} {{refend}}
==External links== * [https://collections.cfmdc.org/titles/1433 ''Water Sark''] at the Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre * {{IMDb title}}
{{Joyce Wieland}}
Category:1960s avant-garde and experimental films Category:1965 short films Category:Films directed by Joyce Wieland Category:Films without speech Category:Non-narrative films