Lindsay Lawson
Friday, 9 July 2010
Work from Das Ding (and others).
“The thing in itself (das ding an sich) is an object independent of the senses. It is a thing without a viewer: tangible, but not perceivable. This video mimics the famous pottery scene from the movie Ghost when Sam (who is a ghost for most of the movie) helps Molly, but mostly flirts, as she throws clay into a vase while the song Unchained Melody plays in the background. Setting aside most of the plot, the movie mainly deals with the presence of absence. Sam is gone and yet he is not. The vase itself is an object illustrating this paradox. Its walls are carved out only to create a negative space (an absence) in which to put something, presumably flowers. It’s shape may be phallic, but it will always posses its yonic counterpart and since the object in Das Ding appears to be a glass-like material both of its genders can be seen at the same time. The shape of the vase develops over time without a visible hand forming it which implies that some ghost-like force is manipulating the clay or that the vase is simply forming itself.” – Lindsay Lawson