Drives
Upcoming Performances:
- Exhibition
Sep 6th, 2007 to Sep 15th, 2007 - View Schedule
at: VIVO
Erik Olofsen, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
The video installation “Drives” shows portraits of people driving in their cars. Lonely individuals caged in their metal cocoons, shielded from the outside and from each other. Their isolation in being emphasized by projecting the portraits of the drivers on separate screens spread through the installation’s space.
A digital high-speed camera, which is normally used for technical purposes (for example to analyze the impact on a human body during a collision, or for quality assurance on assembly lines), was used to capture and observe human emotions. The quick passing of anonymous drivers is being transformed into intriguing portraits of people in their private space, each with their own thoughts and expressions. The camera films every passing vehicle for three seconds, and it transforms into a sequence of 1 – 2 minutes of scenes with people dreaming, thinking, worrying, talking, quarrelling and weeping.
It can seem rather absurd to film people with a high-speed camera while they are sitting still. It creates an eerie sensation to expand the time frame of people captured in a profane activity like sitting in a car. This is not the only aspect rendering the images peculiar. It’s the background that has a disorienting effect on the viewer: in one scene the background moves forward, in the other backward in time. What’s going on? Are people, imprisoned in their vehicles, aimlessly driving into an uncertain future?
Drives is supported by:
* Dutch Film Fund (Stichting Nederlands Fonds voor de Film)
* The Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture (Fonds BKVB)
* Vision Research