Keimai III, 2008 Still from limited edition video and sound by the artist, 8 min., color, sound. Self-shot video based on performance
and sculptural installation: magazines, newspapers, books, and maps printed in Germany in 1930s, ancient Chinese sward, fencing equipment, rubber latex, charcoal, the artist.
Keimai III, 2008
Keimai III (in ancient Greek "I lie down") continues a series of projects investigating the relationship between body and history. In Keimai III I am lying on books, maps and magazines published in Germany in 1930s, which are interspersed with my abstract drawings. I am holding a saber and later, a medieval Chinese sword. I move with the weapons in a series of gestures related to fencing, cutting through space. I draw with chunks of charcoal leaving abstract lines around my body and leaving marks, that function as another layer of non-textual meaning, marking the pages form the open books and magazines, marking and partially destroying the pre-existing drawings. Gestures made with the saber and the sward become related to the acts of drawing. In the video image a sense of ambiguity and tension occurs between what is usually seen or experienced as vertical and horizontal, enhanced by the position of the camera mounted from above, showing my body as if suspended in a graphic universe.
Keimai III reflects on the symbolic nature of body gesture in fencing as related to drawing and outlining the space and is also dealing with the notion of masculine versus feminine through the gestural expression. Keimai III was inspired partially by the life of Helen Mayer, a German-Jewish fencer who was invited by Hitler to take part in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Among others, I invite the viewers to consider the historical relationship between sport and war, both involved with the issues of national politics and identity politics.
