- Venue
- Edinburgh College of Art (JISC)
- Location
It’s quite daunting sitting here, here in this darkened hall surrounded by these archways, by these balconies.
But that is not the only attribute that makes me feel uneasy. I feel my presence is unwelcome, not sticking to modern day society’s rule of ‘fashionable late’ I’m here at opening, I’m here at 10am.
“She shouldn’t be in here”, an ill attempted hushed voice. I play innocent, I act oblivious.
Is it a reflection upon society?
An insight into nature vs nurture?
The notions running throw my head, but why?
Two screens elegantly angled with one another, angled at a 45 degree angle. Creating a corner that presents the videos as one, but with the hint of separation.
The left hand screen illuminates with a projection of Chimpanzees in a reserve, the other, the right hand screen illuminates with a projection of Chimpanzees in a home.
Who is the domestic Chimp?
In the home, it is not chimps, no instead humans dressed as our close ancestors, in costume, in make up. Acting as chimps, behavior n’all, dragging knuckles along the floor, a general clumsiness.
The chimps in the reserve, the classic zoo shot, the rope structures the swinging tyre. But with the oddity of a tv screen, the screen playing a feed of the homelife chimp.
Not so much a contrast in mannerisms, nor so much context. The homelife chimp watching tv, the zoolife chimps watching the screens.
But the zoo animals seem much less interested in the screens. Only occasionally glancing at the screens, as though it’s background noise.
The unwatched daytime tv of today, this morning, loose women.
There is no greater interest, with the occasional pick of the nose, with the occasional scratch of the lower half the zoo animals take no interest in what the screens are showing, despite the flat trashing chimps.
Was there meant to be a continuity of wild ape behavior between screens? Running from the flat to the reserve. Or from the reserve to the flat?
Sitting in the darkened hall, the chimpanzee calls bouncing of the walls, I feel as though there should be the voice of David Attenborough echoing throughout.
