SHORT SEASON, 2023
Claudia Hart
Short Seasons portrays a room in which a rapidly transforming forming figure devolves and evolves in counterpoint. A variety of visual, temporal, and conceptual cycles are offset and overlaid so that their movement is obscured. As in life, all is in flux as we move towards death, but we can’t perceive it. Our brains are anchored in our bodies, so we feel fixed. We decay, but we can’t perceive it. In this mix, everything changes constantly, but time seems to stand still, which is the nature of life.
Short Seasons uses a longer 10-minute animation initially produced in 2007, but now sped up, the same events taking place in only two minutes. A seated woman in a pose of erotic abandon cycles clockwise on a rotating pedestal. As she cycles, she decomposes, a vine of roses surrounding her, blooming and then fading away. The room also revolves, though counterclockwise, while the animation camera pans back and forth. These movements function in counterpoint, to appear only on the edge of perception. Although faster than the 2007 animation, the sense of flux and chaos is even more acute, so more confusing, and even more imperceptible. The sound for the piece is of crumpling paper, but magnified and at fast speed, giving the impression of a frightening, anxiety-provoking digital noise. The color scheme is white on white.
Short Season, 2023 version premiered in:
A Beating Heart: Female Pioneers of Digital Art, May 17 - June 3, curated by Anika Meiers, Expanded.art, Berlin
Techno-Healing: Finding Resilience and Well-Being in a Digital World, as part of the Alice in Blockchains conference, curated by Petra Tomljanović, May 31-June 14, Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb, Croatia
The long-form seasons is in the Borusan Contemporary Collection; the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation Collection and the Lutz Teutloff Photo and Video Collection