He Drowned in Her Eyes as She Called Him to Follow
Artist
Janaina Tschäpe
(Tyskland, född 1973)
Date1999-2000
MediumVideo, color, stereo sound
Dimensions20:00 min
ClassificationMoving Images, Performance
Credit LinePurchase 2001
Countries
Object NumberMOM/2001/15
The artwork is not on display
About the artworkJanaina Tschäpe often bases her works on a specific landscape – the Brazilian jungle, the endless Atlantic. More precisely, her films, performances and paintings are set in the artist’s own intensified memories of places, as they could have appeared in a dream. She plays with approaches that were also explored by surrealist artists: dream states, metamorphosis and a mythological super-reality.
In He Drowned in Her Eyes and She Called Him to Follow, Tschäpe assumes the role of the mermaid who leaves her aquatic world for the fascination of a port, with its jetties, fairgrounds and dance halls. She becomes a mute and alien creature, registering everything with the serene amazement of an outsider. The mermaid body is transformed with water-filled latex balloons, deformed by centuries under water. The film is accompanied by an endless, bittersweet music loop seemingly foreboding a disastrous
In He Drowned in Her Eyes and She Called Him to Follow, Tschäpe assumes the role of the mermaid who leaves her aquatic world for the fascination of a port, with its jetties, fairgrounds and dance halls. She becomes a mute and alien creature, registering everything with the serene amazement of an outsider. The mermaid body is transformed with water-filled latex balloons, deformed by centuries under water. The film is accompanied by an endless, bittersweet music loop seemingly foreboding a disastrous