Untitled
UNTITLED is an investigation into an alternative measurement of time from fixed increments to measuring it in generations of flowers.
Inspired by A Gilded Lapse of Time, a poem by Gjertrud Schnackenberg in which she refers to a haunting poem, found in the barracks of the Auschwitz concentration camp. The poem was scratched into the wood by an unknown author; itself a reference to Russian poets Osip and Nadezhda Mandelstam.
Project Year
1999
Materials
6 video monitors, 6 convex mirrors, 6 wooden cabinets
Location
Vancouver, BC Canada
Project Status
Completed
UNTITLED is a video installation which includes six video monitors and six convex mirrors showing video footage of text and images; including a time-lapse video of a rose blooming and wilting accompanied by a metronome. The monitors are placed in a circular format and the footage is randomly staggered on each monitor. A recording of an audio narration of Gjertrud Schnackenberg’s poem is played throughout the duration of the installation.
“If I could begin again.
Time is something I would measure
In the generations of roses,
evolving across
Gulfs we have no records of,
Eons without archives,
Eons without witnesses,
Without surviving portraits.”
Time is something I would measure
In the generations of roses,
evolving across
Gulfs we have no records of,
Eons without archives,
Eons without witnesses,
Without surviving portraits.”
– Gjertrud Schnackenberg