2019
Scylla – A Fragment
2019
single-channel-video (HD, color, sound)
16:42
Vimeo password: whitespace
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The video Scylla – A Fragment is a multi-layered montage that combines storytelling with the abstract camouflage of the Armada paintings. Moving detail shots from the painting series appear next to virtual sky and seascapes, artificial thunder from screen-savers and sleep videos, as well as original historical footage from World War Two.
A computer-generated voice reads excerpts from Homer’s Odyssey, featuring Odysseus’s son Telemachos, the Spartan King Menelaos, the nymph Circe who warns Odysseus of the monster Scylla, and finally, Odysseus’ tragic encounter with the monster itself. Recorded details from the Armada paintings merge dynamically with film documents from 1941, depicting the legendary battle between the British warship Hood and the German Bismarck, which led to a military catastrophe and the eventual destruction of both ships.
Tragedy, heroism, and the aesthetics of violence and victory are present in both this WWII episode and Homer’s myth. Scylla becomes an emblem of death and destruction — an abstract monster whose uncontrollable power and agility are mirrored by the dynamic painterly abstraction and random distortions of the moving collage. The camera seems to fly across the canvas as if mapping an imaginary topography.
Along with the Armada paintings from 2016-18, this video reflects on the techno-aesthetics of war machines and their representation. It revolves around the question of how such an event in history or mythology can be restaged or retold — the narration is balanced between persuasive pathos and the oddly detached, profane technological tools of today.
