Johanna's
PAST WORK
What: a video with moving and still image. Shows the interior of a cave-like space furnished with cold slick furniture. This slowly reveals itself in hand held mostly closeup shots. The still images interlace the moving sequences and depict a female body (mine) dressed in white, enacting different postures while engaging with furniture (couch). The video is a projection on the wall. There is sound of 1: recording of the earth, 2: of my voice. The voice only speaks when the still images are shown. The still images are also interlaced with flat green surfaces following the rhythm of my voice
.[I find it interesting when you use the word images and then missing the word images in connection to green surfaces, i know it might seem too funny, but i somehow think that it corresponds to the way that we look at the world throught the images and the word by itself could be forgotten soon as the reality and images would merge even linguistically..]
How: I first found the cave apartments in online advertisements for holidays. They fascinated me with their luxurious and cold style, while still being close to the earth as much as they could (carved into the stone). I travelled to Spain and filmed the sequences in one of the apartments in Spain. Thought 2,5 days I took video and photo material, following an idea, but intuitively. Then I selected an edited the material, also intuitively, finding out about the work while making it. The text was added later, when the still images started to interlace the video material.
[What made you add the text to the work? Additional channel of communication? Would it be possible for this work to exist without naration? Was it an intuitive decision? Or conceptual? ]
I had the impression that the text would add a reading tool to the work, that it could add a loose layer of interpretation. It describes my feeling of entanglement between natural surroundings and their adaptation into cultural experiences, but cryptically. I thought that they could add another layer into the understanding of the work. I want to re-edit the video, and possibly drop the sound all together. Especially in combination with the leaves it made the work very noisy and distracting for my perception.
Why: I was struck by the concept of a cave that resembles a spaceship. For me that space embodies a contemporary condition: the human body that is both ubiquitously connected with is anthropological history, but also projects itself into the future though sci-fi visions.
[How were these appartments advertised initially? Or what were the initial promisses of this place? Did it somehow influence your fascination? ]
They were initially advertised on airbnb, I found them while searching for a holiday accomodation. I then started to deliberately search for cave apartment and found a bunch of them in different places, mostly spain and greece. It influenced my fascination precisely because it is so decadent in a way to live in a luxurious cave. Most of them are extremely expensive: I am also interested in the relationship between wealth and well-bein industry. Also, buying an experience through the internet is an inherent part of this contemporary condition.
Relation to previous work: Before this work I have been working a lot with photography and „self-portrait“. Photography has always been one of my main mediums so far, but I have always wanted to experiment more with moving image as an extension of the photography medium. I have also used my voice in past works and wished to do this more. The theme of the body has come through in a few works (The Human Soul Is Outside, 2016, performance and installation), and From Bling Bling To I Ching (Video installation, 2015), but never so strongly focused on a contemporary condition.[What did this experiment of moving from image to moving image bring you?] I found it more difficult to work with video, not only shooting but also editing. (I am a quite impatient producer of work.) I suppose more practice will make it easier for me, [Do you find it more sattisfying?] Not necessairly, because I don't have the technical expertise in video yet, and I do want that for the works i make. But I find the time element of video very interesting, it gives it a type of "life" that is impossible in photography. [So what you are reaching with combining all these elements is somehow a cinematic experience. Do you find that the presence of all these elements in your work sattisfying? I have a feeling sometimes but its a personal remark of course that having all the elements such as voice, body and moving image together makes the work more consumable, so here is the question: what space do you think you leave in your work for the interpretation and how much space do you leave for it.. As photograph sometimes would be really hard to decodify and take apart, or voice solely would open too wide of a channel to fantasize, or the faces of the main characters on the book cover would block you from imagining something else.. dunno maybe just a point for discusion.. ] I suppose that I was trying to channel the work in a certain direction by adding the images and the voice, so to offer more anchors for reading opportunities. I was hoping to somehow also make it more accessible, but not less cryptical. I had no idea how much of my intentions were understood, but I was surprised about it. I personally feel unsatisfied with the work at the moment, and I am not sure if it has to do with rhytm, amount and type of material, its combination or the format of display...
What context created the work: It was produced for my first GC at PZI. I have tried to on one hand really focus on a subject that had mattered to me though time, that had crystallized itself out, but never came to the surface. A subject that could be relevant for me throughout my MFA (and so the articulation of my artistic practice). The environment of the MFA challenged me to try a format that I have not used before. Although I feel I did that carefully.
Within a broader cultural context: The theme of the body has been vastly explored in art throughout its whole history. However, I feel that it is still urgent. The body is experienced differently according to the way we develop our environment, the way we lead out bodies though space and engage and create the things around us, but also the way that we understand and reflect upon our bodies. I particularly address the individual body, rather than the bodies together. In a society that gradually evolves a cyborg reality the body keeps redefining its needs, which express themselves in trends or other cultural expressions.
CURRENT WORK
What: A series of 3 audio pieces delivered though wireless headphones and placed onto found objects as supports: a palm tree flower, a lacquered bamboo stick, a pink ceramic cup stuck to the wall. The audios are a cappella songs that describe hybrid spaces between body, its inside, objects, landscapes, machines,… These forms and spaces dissolve into each other in a sensual encounter through the text. How: The first text was „lying on my table“ for a while without knowing what to do with it. The singing element was introduced as a way of „de-dramatizing“ the spoken word. Based on 3 love songs of different genres I reinterpreted the melodies and created „covers“ while using my own texts. The placement and choice of the objects happened intuitively, but thinking about the need of movement while listening, and imagining the support as an exchangeable found object, that does not underlie to a hierarchical structure of value. [Didnt really understand this part about the value? Can you expand on that?] Each object is of same importance in the world, and transports values that are different but cannot be compared in quantity. In this sense, their choice deliberately comes from my momentary state of mind/emotion, and not a conceptual reason. If there is any conceptual reason for the precise choice, than it is that they are all equally different.
Why: I was interested in the dissolution of boundaries between human and its environment, the space of imagination and visualization, in the idea of constructed reality, and melting of time and space. [Sounds very yummy, i imaging myself being honey or spring of water.]
Similarities to the previous work: Both are predominantly immaterial, carried out though material supports (projector, headphones). The interest int the body as a resonating subject. The contemporary condition of a body that lives in a cyborg reality. The connection between our natural history and the movement towards a sci-fi present. [Sci-fi present?] Sci-fi present as a state of moving towards a science fiction reality. As in time, not in gift. What is „bodiness“? When is it outside and when inside? Where is the self and how does one determine that? Can one feel as if dissolved into the world? Or can one dissolve his construct of the world?
Differences to the previous work: Previous work was video, current work audio. Video work was concentrated on the eyes as primary target: the visualization of a mental space and a condition. Audio work was concentrated on the ears and focused on the imagination, not visualization.
Who can help me with that / who helped me: Victor and Nick though being able to understand the work and give their opinion on how to install. Victors sculptures and the exhibition concept also informed my audio after a while. Collette gave me good referenced in audio work. My apartment and Philipp for being silent. Bernd for giving me great practical advices, ideas and rethinking presentation.
FUTURE WORK:
What could it be and what makes it necessary for me: It could be a floor installation or on a table. It could be a series of containers for food and or substances, fluids that are absorbed thought the body. Bread, water, cream, medical substances, air, spit, smoke, sound, color. Everything that is taken in physically through the body. The containers are all stamps of the body? Some abstract and some recognizable. Made in ceramics, glass, wood, stone, plaster any kind of disposable material deriving from nature? Could it be hanging or somewhere else in the city? It could be only existing temporarily, recyclable. Does it need to have a useful purpose? Could it be a meal? Could it be gone after the presentation? It is necessary because i want to engage with intake and exchange of substance. With the temporality of material and of body, the cycle of digestion as in the cycle of coming and going. The transformation of material. Also because I want to have more experience with objects in a space and what that feels like and what importance that has within my practice. The engagement with physical material is important for me on the level of satisfaction of making, but I don’t know how I feel about lasting objects. [Sounds really great and inspiring i think we should collaborate on some of that!] YES!