Room 1.32
Old objects and devices carry a spooky aura, they may remind of time passing, either by their mere existence or in holding documents of the individual past, such as old photographs. Photographs, radio transmission, film, memories, video and audio recordings, telephone conversations, all are ghosts, for they have happened already, but they still remain to haunt us.
Looking back at ancient myths and popular media such as film, its history and its language, we were taught that a ghost’s appearance usually occurs when there is either a message to be transmitted, a wrong to be made right or sometimes just out of some inexplicable rage driving the spirit to manifest. These connotations are implanted in us. Rarely someone would be completely impartial to an encounter with a ghost, expecting the phenomenon to comprise some significance, it’s always extraordinary, a memento, the trauma buried deep inside and popping up, the aching fondness we once received or tried to give, the witness of lighter, brighter days, or the contrary - our dark visits to Hades. Sometimes a relic of the past acts just as a mundane interruption of the usual. If one was temporarily forced to use an older version of an object while being used to the new, smoother counterpart, it may happen that annoyance due to the decreased capacity of some sort occurs. This kind of interruptions on the other hand can be hilarious for the onlooker, as the protagonist is trying to go on with their usual routine.
In the early days of radio, radio static was the imperfection that compelled to listen keenly, for the noise in it was often interpreted as a transmitter for voices of the dead glitching over. Back then, it was the novelty of it that was connected to the dead, caused by lack of familiarity. Now it’s its old age which is eerie, reinforced by the fact that it’s not used any longer. The object itself is dead and should be buried and rest there, in a manner of speaking.
All works presented involve a ghost, the re-emergence of the discarded, be it an outgrown state performed or old devices or materials used, some causing us to smirk, some provoking shivers.
Paul Allsopp, The Enunciator, Video, 2010, 3:05 mn
For this video Paul Allsopp assembled found material into a sequence, which becomes intelligible due to the process.
Here we have found material, processed relentlessly, Youtube videos filmed over and over from a Mac, leaving almost only the noise this procedure effects.
We cannot really hear, what the dog is howling, we can barely guess that this is a dog in the first place. In addition everyday kerfuffle is flooding the soundscape. We have to listen in and try hard to perceive what is actually going on.
Owners filmed their dogs, while attempting to teach them to howl in a way that could be interpreted to resemble the words “I love you”. The pets, probably in the pain caused by the physical effort they have to exert in order to do this, unwittingly mock psychological suffering, such as intense longing, while the hollow sounding voice the dog produces reveals the absence of meaning. The video too seems to be in pain, by showing the exhausted possibilities of the equipment used.
The dog’s owners, insisting on their pets repeating sweet nothings, appear to project their desires into the actual nothingness, despite being mirrored by a creature not understanding these words and distorting them highly.
Marko Maettam, Love, Video, 2010, 5:32 mn
Courtesy of Temnikova & Kasela Gallery, Tallinn, Estonia
Marko Maettam’s practice revolves around his issue with seemingly having to choose between spending time with his family or fostering his art projects. Addressing this problem in his works, they are often reflecting his feelings of being trapped, while using his family as – at times unaware - protagonists in his videos and drawings.
Marko Maettam’s video “Love” shows the dissonance between the past and present state of the relationship. He acts as a remnant of distant days, reminding of promises made to each other, which at the moment the video has been made have been given up long ago, rendering his statements about the initial awe they have had for each other useless. As feelings have settled but also dullened, the words fade as there are, if not more important, then more urgent things to attend. The action becomes a nuisance, interrupting the process of everyday life. His wife tries to push him away, accomplish an everyday task and does not feel flattered by the shower of attention given her at all. Still, he relentlessly continues to embody a moment his wife doesn’t particularly care to recall at that time. It all becomes even more humorous as the kids, evidence of shared time passed, appear, obviously knowing that the moment is being captured.
Dejan Dukic, Storage paintings, wood, acrylic, fluid pigment and oil on canvas, 2012
How to surpass the limitations a canvas stipulates and overcome the historically given assumptions about its application are the cardinal concerns of Dejan Dukic’s art practice.
By declining to succumb to the already provided, common purpose, in order to escape the tautologous, he is using elements of the physical composition of the image carrier itself to chisel out a novel approach to painting. The inherent alternatives discovered in the process allow for a unique visual vocabulary to crystallise.
Helene van Duijne, Remote Viewing, Print and acrylic, Vienna, 2010
Helene van Duijne’s print depicts a still from a Youtube video, supposedly showing a ghost appearance caught on camera, and the Youtube audience’s response to it, which she partly sloppily retouched. In the upper right corner we can see the manipulated date of the discovery of the image, a sequence of binary numbers, on which all programming language is based, referring to the Internet as medium itself and revealing connotations to the realm of spiritism and the yes/no questions commonly used in séances.
With newer forums such as Instagram gaining more momentum and followers, Youtube is becoming uncared for to some degree, while remaining active.
The print oscillates between the portrayal of a ghost viewing displayed on Youtube, a séance and our interaction with unseizable interlocutors across the globe, for they all demand a will to believe and are triggered by our desire to associate with an asomatous collective.
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