(Film still from 'Ever Since' (2012) appears as covering photo, courtesy of Hauser and Wirth).
...'In this exhibition Wallinger encourages a contemplation of the self within a society in which behaviour and personal identity come under increasingly closer scrutiny. Wallinger utilises Sigmund Freud's terms, id, ego and superego in an interrogation of the psyche, the self and the subject. The work examines how, as human beings, we operate between our instinctual urges, our attachment to our identities, and the ways in which we judge ourselves as members of a certain culture...According to Freud, the id, driven by the pleasure principle, is the source of all psychic energy.' (ref: Leonardo da Vinci's 'Vitruvian Man' and the Rorschach test).
Works:
'Ever Since' (2012)
There in silence is a life-sized HD projection of a barber's shop front still all except for the endless, smooth and silent spinning of the barber shop pole on the outside. Caught between an illusion of movement and the fixed gaze on the visual display. The hyper real filmic translation of the barber shop alludes to a feeling of movement. The eery 'endlessness' of the revolving barber's pole lives as a separate layer to the overall projection, it transcends the photographic image, constantly teasing the setup and situation.
'Orrery' (2016)
Mutually exclusive movements in order to measure movement and positioning. 'Orrery' is named after the mechanical model that articulates the positions of the planets and moons. The work is shown on 4 screens, representing the seasons, positioned facing each other in a circle and to follow the movement of the videos, one must revolve themselves in the centre of the circle. Created with an iPhone blue-tacked to the driver's side window, the iPhone records the New Fairlop Oak tree that was planted in the centre of Fulwell Cross roundabout in Barkingside in 1951, as part of the Festival of Britain, to commemorate the legendary Fairlop Oak that had stood for centuries in Hainault Forest. On its roundabout pedestal the tree appears to revolve on display as the filming frame is kept constant except for the noise of the traffic circulating nearby and the changing weather and positioning of the sun.
'Cameo of Britain' ...a short descriptive literary sketch that neatly encapsulates Britain.
I trace back to an exhibition by Ceryth Wyn Evans at White Cube art gallery last year when palm plants were displayed on slowly rotating plinths. Whilst walking and standing at a distance in the room, the movement is not noticeable. One needed to go up to each of the plants and remain still which reminded me of the physics of planetary positioning and the way we measure our position on Earth in relation to surrounding matter in the universe.