FORBIDDEN FRUIT (2019)
Video installation.
Showcased at a self-initiated exhibition at Keilepand (Rotterdam).
We live in a fast-paced life where technology accompanies us at every step. Technology helps us to live easier and faster. But does it really help or does it slowly destroy us? We live so fast that we have no time anymore. We seem to be connected more closely than ever with the help of all the devices but we lack a simple person-to-person contact. Technological advances are supposed to free up creative thinking but mass of the information destroyed our ability to focus. We have less time to reflect on anything because of a need to act, need to be online, to always check the (un)necessary information. We are all the time distracted and not noticing the details. Technology that is supposed to free us - enslaves us.
I work with the Tableau Vivant technique as a way to slow down the intense speed of our everyday life. The stillness of Tableau Vivant aesthetics makes our eyes and minds wander around the shot without interruption of cuts and distraction of camera movement as if it would be a painting. I used it as a way to slow down the intense speed of our everyday life. Eventually, the stillness of the shot gets interrupted - we hear the harsh sound of the telephone ringtone which disrupts the ‘painting’. Interruption of the stillness by a technological device was my reflection on our sick society and a kind of parodic way to illustrate how we are being constantly interrupted by technology in our everyday life and how tempted we constantly are to pick it and to check it.
Tableau Vivant technique in film is a very in-between medium that connects past and future, painting and film. I think nowadays ‘futuristic’ society needs to learn to get back in time for a little while, where minds were not filled with all the fast & easy to reach information.
Full video upon request.
