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BREATHING ROOM 4m2
Installation
PVC plastic-stripe 2x2x8m
In through the Nose, and Out of the Mouth
On Breathing Space by Jona Hlif Halldorsdottir
I’m confronted with an installation in which a tall room-like space, lit by a single light bulb, is created using vertical clear plastic strips commonly used in factories. The space creates a sense that one enters into the installation to breathe, to move into a physical and psychological space to rest and clear the airways of fusty gallery rhetoric. As one looks out from the space into the surrounding area, one sees the previous space in a different way, distorted by the warping of the plastic material. A new perception of the world (only moments ago left behind) is now out of focus, and forces the eye to want to adjust, make clear…optically breathe…
But what has been the experience, and why does changing my vision, in such a simple gesture, become so important?
Inhale… the artist has created on the surface a place to step outside of oneself, a seemingly restful place of relaxing contemplation. But the feeling is disconcerting as if being lead into an abattoir for slaughter. Suddenly my sense of clarity is blurred by the view of myself from the outside looking inward, that runs through my mind like a film being played out of my life. By sniffing out a visual morsel, that has taken me from the street into the gallery space into the installation, I have been implicated. A guilty participant in my own voyeuristic nature, but now I am on view. I’ve become a specimen of my own social, political and cultural condition. Breathing has become the last thing on offer… I am!
Exhale… the lasting impact lies in the fact I’m never permanently caught in this state of vulnerability. When I leave this breathing space I have become aware of myself, yet I’m left with the feeling that I share with the rest of society. A knowing unspoken thought that we live and think about all the time, but rarely share. Thoughts that mediate between our public and private moments, the things we choose to illustrate our lives with, and those that get left on the film cutting room floor.
And Relax…
Yuen Fong Ling
June 2007
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Life is so hungry - no one can eat themselves
This installation work is based on 25 small figures (made of plaster) that are half human, with two heads. Their “heads” are upturned and “mouths” open, as if they are screaming. They are stuck in a situation that they cannot control. They share with the viewer an awareness of impotence, and ask them to deal with the contrast of silence and violence. This is expressed by the spontaneous act of the red sprayed in the pure white of the figures.
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