- Venue
- Hamburger Bahnhof
- Location
I'm sure that in differing circumstances turning a dark corner and being confronted by seventeen winking men could have been much more enjoyable; however, in my hung over state it was not ideal.
Gary Hill's projection consisted of seventeen actual sized men lined up along the wall of the gallery. All the men appeared to be wearing their own clothes and were all of an age that I estimated to be over forty. They were of varying races, heights and body types.
My initial reaction was that I had walked in on a police line up which had been flip reversed into the situation where I was the only accused and seventeen scary men were ‘pointing the finger' at me. It sounds daft but it did genuinely make me feel intimidated.
However, the more time I spent with them, the less intimidating them became as the dominant slowly became the recessive. I still felt uncomfortably scrutinised yet I had developed a sense that the roles were changing and that I had gone from feeling like the ‘accused' to the ‘accuser'. With this came a wave of confidence, almost cockiness, as I marched up to one of them and starred him right in the eye. I paced up and down the line like an officer in the army trying to intimidate my new recruits. However, every so often one of them would blink or twitch which immediately knocked me back provoking the feeling of being observed.
The opportunity to get really up close to another person is fairly rare especially a stranger and I'd think almost impossible to do so without the knowledge of that person. Gary Hill is said to be posing the question of what is actually visible when we look at bodies; whether our own or those of others. I think that this work undoubtedly gave me the opportunity to see past the colours of each guys hair, skin and clothes and really observe them with a great deal of scrutiny and authority.
I was disappointed that I didn't find any of them attractive. A rare opportunity to unsubtly cop a good purve would have been brilliant! Failing any sexual interest I progressed into a state of ‘Trinny and Susanne', finding myself particularly amused by one mans, lets say ‘brave' pink over coat.
Through both the good times and the bad this work successfully made me consider myself in relation to other people and similarly them to me. It has definitely made me think about the way people see me, in particularly strangers as they are not blinded by an image of me that people who know me will subconsciously carry around with them.
I am a Fine Art Student at nottingham trent uni, getting into my review writting!
