Backlight TV
In situ installation with audio track, movement sensor and 3 spot lights.
The work is inspired by a rare type of
Alzheimer dementia called le signe de l’image vivante (picture sign). The audio track is a narrative adapted from the findings
described in ‘Le signe de l’image vivante’ chez un patiente atteinte de la maladie d’Alzheimer,
in Journal of psychiatry & neuroscience: JPN 21(3), January 1996. In their sensory delirium patients believe that
persons appearing on photographs or on television are physically real...
Fragment of the audio track
When her daughter came to visit her right after she moved, she was tidying up the pictures of her marriage. Trying to loosen up the atmosphere her daughter started to question her about her first love affairs.
Her daughter did not understand why her mother blushed, why she stared back and forth to her and to the picture of her deceased husband. During the conversation that followed, E often hesitated. It seemed as if she avoided certain subjects.
Listening to her one could have the impression of zapping programmes on the television.
Little by little her living room became completely covered with pictures and magazine pages.
The television was continuously turned on.
Shows
Bright Tomorrow, Gent, March 16th–April, 8th 2012
