The performative video work, 'Is This Me?' was initially produced during the course of the artist's stay in Tunis, Tunisia in 2020. The stay was funded in part by a scholarship.
This initial production was presented at an online exhibition titled 'Co-Ability' organised by 'Österreichisches Kulturforum Budapest - Austrian Cultural Forum' in May 2020.
Sections of the work were further developed, adapted and screened at Humanoidity, a literary-artistic evening in July 2020 in Tunis, Tunisia with support from the Austrian Embassy, Tunis.
A further adaptation was conceived for DA_DA_Zwischen and screened at the WUK in Vienna in September 2020.
The artist herself also performed the work, curated by KUNSTZELLE at the Parallel Vienna art fair in September 2020 in front of an invite-only audience.
Further development including the illustrative enhancement were developed thererafter, being presented by the artist at the Society for Artistic Research Conference in April 2021.
Two starkly contrasting worlds are revealed on peering through. In prodding the observer, the performance on the self and its faltering highlights inaction within the perceptual cell by dint of uncertainty.β
The performative exoskeletal artwork entreats and supplicates the beholder on the rostrum of individuality 'Is This Me?', inducing the 'faltering of the self' and 'faltering of the system' through resistance and transformation.
The metal framework, as a trope, simultaneously conceals and reveals the process of alienation. The motion within the exoskeleton portrays the kinematic limits of the bodyb, surmised as science-based human inaction
In reasoning logically, or expressing the willingness thereto, substantive action will be humanity's wake-up call and its long-term reward.
Evoking the urgency to make educated decisions, the work tests the inherent limits of the self with only the available resources within the ascertained leeway for manoeuvre, endeavouring to untangle the enwreathed environment.
The series of videos and the concomitant textual work are the result of the continuous furthering of the tales of the ever-changing that is exhibited in 'Is This Me?-Humanity's Wake-Up Call'.
Delving on the resilience of the self, as exemplified through the exoskeleton within the perceptual cell, the exhibition calls to stand collectively, driving collaborative systemic changes to our societal challenges in aiming to address a part of the spectrum of global challenges. The interdisciplinarity spans across the phenomenological aspect in the performing arts, intra- and inter-personal decision-making processes on a trans-national scale, to precipitate collective environmental action.
Kinematically shackled and bound by the imagined limits of the human mind, this collaborative work appeals to the world community to make sound decisions. 'Standing on the Shoulders of Giants', this trans-national responsibility vested in humanity, will entail the apt self-introspective title 'Is This Me?' in positive disbelief.
Lurking and looming over sandy fragments, the beetle shackled within the limits of existence refuses to move along. Through volition, it hesitates to persevere, but linearity treads on.
As Samuel Beckett put it,
"Abode where lost bodies roam each search for its lost one. Vast enough for search to be in vain. Narrow enough for flight to be in vain." ⍺
Questioning through dialogue, cause-effect principles of processes engender empathic transformation of the Self flowing into the narrative of its perception. The narrator metamorphises into the insect, petrified.
Artworks
- Akomfrah, John. Purple. 6-channel HD colour video installation with 15.1 surround sound, 62’, 2017.
- Fromm, Julia. "Is This Me?" Dance Performance. In co-Ability (2020). Accessed May 28, 2021. https://issuu.com/okfbudapest/docs/co-ability_catalog_b?ff
- Tykkä, Salla. Airs Above the Ground. Experimental video installation, 8:20’, 2010.
Books
- Beckett, Samuel. The Lost Ones. Grove Press: New York, 1972.
- Bleeker, Maaike, Nedelkopoulou, Eirini, and Sherman, Jon Foley. Performance and Phenomenology Traditions and Transformations. Routledge: London, 2017.
- Kleist, Heinrich von. “Über das Marionettentheater: Ein philosophischer Aufsatz.“ In Künstliche Menschen, ed. Rolf Aurich, Jovis Verlag: Berlin, 2000.
- Middlebrooke, Diane. Young Ovid: A Life Recreated. Counterpoint Press: Berkeley, 2015.
- Daphne and Apollo (from the Ovid Moralisé). Translated by Ross G. Arthur, Old French Series: Cambridge, 2000.
- Stoichita, Victor I. The Pygmalion effect: from Ovid to Hitchcock. Chicago Press: Chicago, 2008.
- Wagner, Meike. Nähte am Puppenkörper: Der mediale Blick und die Körperentwürfe des Theaters. Transcript: Bielefeld, 2003.
Scientific Papers
- Velders, Guus J.M., O. Andersen, Stephen, S. Daniel, John, Fahey, David W., and McFarland, Mack. „The Importance of the Montreal Protocol in Protecting Climate.“ In Proceedings of the Natural Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 104, no. 12 (2007): 4814-4819. Accessed Mai 28, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0610328104
Within the perceptual cell, its onomatopoeic expressions metamorphose into an unfettered call for change, albeit within the constrains of its actual existence.ζ
Conjuring an illustrative enhancement of the ideas put forth by the framework described in 'Is This Me?'...
Transcending physical limitations into transcendental non-human existence, the ponderous mechanical movements simultaneously conceal and reveal bodily idiosyncrasies.γ
The interactions alter the picturesque landscape, nature, sand, earth, time and existenceε itself.
The geophony punctures the tranquility of the soundscape fragmenting living time, metamorphosing the bedrock of element interplay.a
As the monologue reverberates and undulates, piercing and transcending crests and troughs, on its pulpit to performpertinaciously resisting obsolescence.
