Sissi Farassat
11 Nov - 19 Dec 2008
SISSI FARASSAT
"es ist, was es ist" /it is what it is/
11.11. – 19.12.2008
In her work Sissi Farassat produces intimate, secret moments without exposing too much. The audience is invited to explore and question the boundary between the personal gaze and the object/the art work/the artist. How close can I get to the work without crossing a certain border? Where is the border? Farassat leaves these questions unresolved, encouraging the viewer to address their own position as spectator.
A series of Polaroids (Untitled, 2007) shows the artist being secretly photographed from a distance by an observing voyeur. The gaze of the photographer is doubled by that of the audience, who are placed in a similar problematic position. This
voyeuristic perspective is also exposed in a film, produced specifically for this exhibition, Sissi, c'est moi; filmed in an original setting of a peep show this work showcases the artist who lays on a moving platform for the entire time. The viewer of the video becomes the voyeur of the peep show, watching a woman on a monitor that is reminiscent of a peep show window.
In "Wer ist das?" (Who is this ?) Sissi Farassat invites the audience to imagine what lies 'behind her photographs'. In this new series the artist redraws the outlines of women with a thread showing only the reverse side of the photographs. Only the silhouettes and poses of these women can be distinguished as the viewer is left to image the ‘real’ photograph from a few sparse lines of thread. Throughout her work Farassat questions our judgements and expectations of each other; asking if one really gets to know a person or if we merely see a pose or a superficial image.
"es ist, was es ist" /it is what it is/
11.11. – 19.12.2008
In her work Sissi Farassat produces intimate, secret moments without exposing too much. The audience is invited to explore and question the boundary between the personal gaze and the object/the art work/the artist. How close can I get to the work without crossing a certain border? Where is the border? Farassat leaves these questions unresolved, encouraging the viewer to address their own position as spectator.
A series of Polaroids (Untitled, 2007) shows the artist being secretly photographed from a distance by an observing voyeur. The gaze of the photographer is doubled by that of the audience, who are placed in a similar problematic position. This
voyeuristic perspective is also exposed in a film, produced specifically for this exhibition, Sissi, c'est moi; filmed in an original setting of a peep show this work showcases the artist who lays on a moving platform for the entire time. The viewer of the video becomes the voyeur of the peep show, watching a woman on a monitor that is reminiscent of a peep show window.
In "Wer ist das?" (Who is this ?) Sissi Farassat invites the audience to imagine what lies 'behind her photographs'. In this new series the artist redraws the outlines of women with a thread showing only the reverse side of the photographs. Only the silhouettes and poses of these women can be distinguished as the viewer is left to image the ‘real’ photograph from a few sparse lines of thread. Throughout her work Farassat questions our judgements and expectations of each other; asking if one really gets to know a person or if we merely see a pose or a superficial image.