Installation, slide projection
24 slides, 35mm, color, Basis Kodak carousel slide tray,
Kodak Ektapro 5020 projector with coat lenses 1:1.2
(approx. 5000 Lumen for daylight character)
2 free-standing walls, 430 x 430 x 60 cm each
Dimensions of projection: 360 x 240 cm
Edition 1/3 + 1 A.P.
For their installation 1991, the two Los Angeles-based artists Karthik Pandian and Mathias Poledna have created an architectonic setting featuring two freestanding walls of equal dimensions; one of them functions as a projection cubicle, the other as a projection screen. The projection itself consists of a series of 24 large-format slides showing a portrait of the model Marike Le Roux. The slide series is based on a 35mm film recorded on a VistaVision camera tilted by 90° in order to create a high-resolution portrait-format picture. Each of the 24 individual frames from a second of footage is framed as a slide, disassembling the film into its basic elements. In a flipbook like sequence, each slide—the pictures differ only in small details—is shown for an entire day. The visual tension between the individual picture and the series intertwines the spatial conditions of the exhibition and the photographic image with the temporal structure of slide installation and film.
The model’s look and the ethnic appeal of the blouse from Yves Saint Laurent’s famous and influential 1976 spring-summer collection Opéra-Ballets Russes generate a historic link to stylistic codes that bring fashion icons from the 1980s and 1990s to mind. The choice of this subject in combination with the otherwise unexplained title (1991 is the year the model was born) aims to raise questions regarding the historicization of media images and the conditions of media-based production more generally.
