With her soloshow
„Under the control“
at Galerie 3000 in June 2018.
Website of the artist
Spectators see a videoprojection. There is a couple of the people on the video. They are boys more probably. They are holding a hand of each other. They are staring at the spectators. Nothing is happening.
Videostill by Anna Tolkacheva
There is a Kinect (electronic devise with a camera and depth scanner) between spectators and the video of the couple. Kinect is staring at the spectators. When there are people in the space Kinect could observe nothing is happening in the video. But when there is no spectators in the room video is changing – the couple is starting to kiss. When somebody enters the space they stop the kiss go away from each other and start again glazing at the spectator.
In the public space each action is being checked if it is approvable or not from the ethic point of view. May be public kissing is not ethical. Though kissing of the people of different gender identity seems to be more legitimate then the kissing of the same gender people. We are controlled by the society and by each other. On the one hand, in the work lovers are under the control– they can’t be doing private actions when people are looking on them. On the other hand, spectator seems to be in her or his usual position. But actually being a participant of the ethical show spectator can’t observe directly. She or he can only peep from the far distance.
Unemotional machine – digital camera observes spectators, analyzing them: if they are too close. The same way machine of society controls the norms of this society. Who is under the control in the situation? Is it the couple, who can’t be close to each other in the ethic zone. Or is it the spectator who is apathetically observed by the camera.
The work was firstly presented at the exhibition Sub observatorium, MMCA, Moscow.