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ONE POEM
2005
video, 60 min
b/w, no sound
This is the initial work from a series of projects based on the poetic text by the artist Dima Hmyznikov. My interest in the phenomenology of perception of this text unites all three of these projects.
In the installation UNDERSTAND/FEEL, which to me is an embodiment of this specific poetic work, I was interested in the possibility of nonverbal perception of the text. The text is “hidden” inside a projection system, which both reproduces it and serves as the interface for interaction with it. The text is projected, letter by letter, on a layer of water. The speed of the text crawl depends on the movement of the spectator’s hand in the water. When the speed is very slow or fast, the text is incomprehensible. It is possible to find an optimal speed for reading fragments of the text but it is impossible to read it in its entirety. My intention was to provide the spectator with the experience of a visceral interaction with the text without allowing her to fully comprehend its meaning.
The installation ONE POEM BETWEEN THE WINDOW AND BLACK WALL creates unique conditions for perception of the same text. A screen showing the slowly scrolling text is placed in the space between a window and a black wall. As in the previous project, the text is presented as a crawler, but it moves so slowly it does not allow to see more than one symbol at a time. The visualization of the text is based on the juxtaposition of 3 different time cycles: The 24-hour cycle of light outside the window, the 60-minute video of the text and the timeless nature of the black surface of a wall.
ONE POEM represents the same text as realized from an objective perspective. In this case, the understanding of the text does not depend on its environment but rather is presented in a manner which I refer to as ‘intratextual’. By this I mean that it has its own time flow.
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