Small Spectacle about Encountering
Astala Lauri
In Small Spectacle about Encountering the viewer and the viewer's space become active elements of the work. A semi-transparent mirror hangs between a chair and a video projection. Whilst sitting in the chair, the viewer notices that the reflection of the chair and the space in the mirror exactly match the same elements within the video. The effect is simultaneously two and three-dimensional, confusing the perception of space. A man appears in the video and sits down in the ”opposite” chair, his image merging with the viewer's reflection in the mirror. The features of this new hybrid creature are bewildering – the viewer recognises both a self and a stranger. The man in the video begins to speak. The 9-minute monologue is a description of an absent person, an encounter with whom – or the impossibility of such an encounter – the narrator reflects upon. The internal and the external become entwined in the story. The identities of the narrator and the person in the story, but also that of the viewer, become fluid: who is this other person? Who am I really? Only one viewer at a time can view the work sitting in the chair. The text in the piece is composed of quotes from Maurice Blanchot’s Le Dernier Homme (The Last Man).
15 works