Liverpool artwork of the week 2009-19. ‘Bis es Wehtut (Until it Hurts)’ 2008 by Sascha Weidner at Open Eye 13 March – 23 May 2009
Last chance to see this exhibition as it finishes on Saturday, also, I believe, your last chance to visit Open Eye at its current location on Wood street as it will be closing for about 18 months before re-opening (hopefully) at its new much larger and prestigious location near the Pier Head.
The exhibition takes its title from Sascha Weidner‘s photo installation Bis es wehtut (Until it Hurts), 2008. Weidner plunges us into a constellation of impressions and memories. His images are intensely physical – full of life – but they also remind us of how fragile and fleeting life is.
Who am I? Am I unique? Do I have an essence, an inner core that makes me myself? Am I free to choose who I am and what I do? Am I an actor, a puppet, a machine? Am I the same person as I was ten years ago? Ten minutes ago? Where do I end? Where does the rest of the world begin?
Markus Hansen‘s video projection Other People’s Feelings (2000-5) presents paired portraits in which the artist assumes the posture and expression of his sitters. Hansen likens the process to method acting. To uncanny effect, using the simplest of means, he enacts a relationship with others that seems almost parasitical – more like invasion than imitation.
For his video piece Cross Examination, 2005, Josh Weinstein accosts strangers in public spaces in New York City. He asks them to talk about who he is – what his story is – basing their account only on the immediate evidence of their encounter. The results are both telling and entertaining.