Crash Course refers to a body of knowledge acquired in short term as in making do as well as to a trajectory whose end is certain as in a course of collision. While the everyday situation that provides the scenario for the piece is the car accident involving pedestrians, the thematic horizon is given by the contemporary occurrence of war.
Crash Course, 1 min Excerpt from 4 min video, dvd video, 2008
The piece consists of a series of video scenes assembled together as a continuous loop. The sequence establish a shift from small accidents like when someone trips over a stopped car to confrontational stances in which the pedestrian jumps over the vehicle with the quixotic intention to gain physical control over it. The focus of this project is the relative indeterminacy of the situation, the misalignment between the actuality and the perception of the accident. Such is the point at which a renegotiation of imbalanced power relationships may take place; in other words, via the performative fabrication of a constructed event.
Crash Course, installation project, 15 x 10 x 8 feet, 2008
The installation is made out of two 'L' sections, juxtaposed at their connecting point, so that as a whole they form two intersecting planes. The largest of these sections accommodates an 8 x 10' screen, along with a 8 x 5' one. The smaller 'L' section holds two 8 x 5' screens. Black netting is stretched across the two screens of the smaller section while a dark rear projection screen is used to cover the largest 'L' section.
Crash Course, cad installation animation, 2008
Different degrees of visibility are afforded from all angles of viewing, inviting the viewer to pursue a round about movement in relation to the screens. Such horizontal dislocation on the part of the viewer correlates to the panning movement that occurs throughout the video.
Crash Course (Copenhagen Tycho), 2008
The cityscape featured in the video is a composite of three cities: Beijing, Copenhagen and New York. While the choice of cities was contingent upon the production conditions of the video, the type of architecture present in each scene provides an uncanny continuity between diverse contexts. Each image is an assembled panorama of image segments shot at 30 degrees intervals. There is a continuing panning movement to the left throughout the video.
Crash Course (Copenhagen Opera House), 2008
The car poses used in this project comprise an iconography of war and wealth. In the particular case of the Hummer, what is articulated in these product photographs, as to make it bluntly explicit, is the vehicle's military provenance. In the video, not unlike the architectural representations of power in the city behind, the car remains static. Its force is to be countered not only as physical presence but also as an image.
Crash Course (Copenhagen Student dorm), 2008
Besides the camera's perpetual panning, the only other movement in the video is given by the body actions against the car. From scene to scene, the car is attacked from every angle. Each of these actions results from photo sequences shot at 8 frames per second.
Exhibitions Press
