CAPTURE DON'T CATCH  | UV 400, 2008-2009

Performance on 13.02.20009, 1,5 hrs.
At the opening of the exhibition “Sculptural Narration”, in the BM Suma Contemporary Art Center, Istanbul, the artist combined her video work “UV 400” with a live performance.
A central walk-through room provided an ideal setting: each visitor was obliged to pass  through the installation from both sides and was thus privy to a double surprise- experience. Pushing aside the heavy curtains on the entrance side, a small oval form  projected onto the rear wall was visible in the total darkness, here  the visitor’s  gaze alighted on a bizarre scene: an owl-like being on the lookout in the woods (this was the artist herself, crouching on a wooden trunk and dressed up as an owl with protective UV snowboard goggles and gloves). Except for the occasional change in the observer’s perspective and the soft, barely audible rustle of leaves, there was no detectable movement in the  video. After a short while one wasn’t only aware of being observed by the owl, but had oneself become a secret observer in the forest, a sort of owl-like being observing everything through snowboard goggles. The fact that someone was also observing you in the room only became apparent through an occasional camera flash allowing you to see the  outline of another owl- figure in the dark pressing  the camera shutter button  at intermittent intervals.
Re- entering the room  from the other side and drawing  aside the curtains the light illuminated a figure: the artist stalking the visitor from her perch position, watching through snowboard goggles and an imposing “feather” wreath of sewn together, double-rowed black gloves.
Automatically, one had  the urge to catch  the performing artist’s attention  either through eye contact, a remark, or a salutary movement. But she just answered each attempt with the perfunctory click of a camera.
Having  become  an accomplice, the visitor now  took on the role of observer: watching from a dark corner how the artist observed the unsuspecting visitors watching the video.

The artists’ photographic observations resulted in the later work “Capture don’t Catch”. During the remainder of the exhibition the double-rowed feather ornament made of gloves hung vicarious on the wall opposite the projection.


Dr. Erika Wäcker-Babnik
Curator of „Sculptural Narration“