Critical Writing Index

The Art of Darkness: On Steve McQueen

by T.J. Demos

October, Fall 2005, v. 114, pp. 61-89

Steve McQueen's Western Deep (2002) is striking for what it does not show. Documenting the labor condtions of miners i the Tautona mine near Johannesburg, the deepest gold mine in the world, the film begins with a long sequence of utter darkness. For a film that ostensibly documents a South African mining operation, its dark introduction is strategic. In this sense, the film proposes a parallel between its content and the terms of its reception, creating a multisensory mimicry of the brutal experience within a mine. On the other hand, we have the first indication of a conspicuous refusal to represent in the visual register, which frustrates the documentary impulse to which the film is seemingly pledged.

ITEM 2005.214 – available for viewing in the Research Centre

Videos, Artworks and Artists Cited

Western DeepSteve McQueen

CatchSteve McQueen

Zen for FilmSteve McQueen