Iris (2006)
Video/Music 4.30 min
(1:37 min SD preview)
The
structure Iris is vertical. There is a suggested development in
the storyline, but it is not logical enough
to be called a narrative, it is rather a lyrical
structure. Time is compressed or stretched, often in slow
motion, presented as repeated gestures (although I
never use the same shot more than once). The
video/music work Iris (2006) begins in an absurd and
cliché act as a female character jumps up anddown
on a blue couch wearing a multicolored striped sweater,
pink panties with a picture of a rainbow and
yellow socks. While the music consists of a soft piano
and a low fragile singing voice, the character jumps
cheerfully almost as competing in a game of some sort
until jumping out of the frame and as the screen
turns black, the music takes the lead, stirring the
imagination of the viewer in the absence of the image.
In short, rapid cuts the video reveals the body
again, jumping repeatedly in mid-air in a visual play with
the staccato rhythm of the piano. Cut to a wide shot of
the character jumping from the couch, the movement
repeatedly edited in mid-air. Cut to an angle of
her landing on a bed, cutting again to a closer frame
of the body almost as being violently thrown down
again and again onto the bed, while the music continues
unaffected in a soothing, softly sung lullaby. Cut
to a new angle framing the white wall, the body
as if flying up. Again, cutting to a higher angle, the
movement of the body as if it is trying to jump higher,
as if now jumping in attempts to perfect the motion.
The music becomes increasingly sentimental as
the image gradually slows down, the body glides through
the air in slow motion, the sweater creating a
faded image of a rainbow in the frame while the character
is almost as floating softly and controlled in the
air as the visual has reached its cadence. The image and
music’s atmosphere is finally synchronized, emerged,
expressing the same emotion. The screen turns black
while the music winds down the piece. In
Iris the editing of the video contrasted to the music is
where the language of this work is created.
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