Elise Rasmussen
Thursday, 19 March 2009
Work from the series, Within These Walls and Stendhal Syndrome. I wanted to continue the tradition of finding any out-of-focus work I can and posting it. While I can’t determine whether she has ever lived or worked in Germany (to strengthen my theory about blurry photography and Germany), she did have a residency in Austria.
Stendahl Syndrome
“‘Life was drained from me. I walked with the fear of falling.’
—Stendhal, Naples and Florence: A Journey from Milan to Reggio, 1817
In 1989 psychiatrist Graziella Margherini published the book La Sindrome di Stendhal. The account chronicled numerous incidents in which tourists experienced sensory overload related to the exuberant art and architecture in the city of Florence. The Uffizi Gallery is said to be a popular locale for victims of this particular syndrome, and houses a recovery bed in a small room off of the gallery’s main corridor for those in need of rest or further care at nearby Santa Maria Nuova Hospital.”
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Within These Walls
“‘Within These Walls features portraits of seemingly melancholic individuals situated within blurred domestic interiors. Subject and setting become one as the relatively nondescript interiors are permeated by the moods of the figures, and the occupied spaces are transformed by our emotional reading of the portraits.’
—excerpt by Sally Frater: Determining Place in 10 Days in July”