*THIS IS THE EVIL-I ('deze oog is kwaad')

*THIS IS THE EVIL-I ('deze oog is kwaad')

Is een oog werkelijk een spiegel tot de ziel ? Hebben we gelijk als we mensen beoordelen omdat we iets verdachts in hun ogen menen te zien ? Laten sommige mensen hun ogen niet zien omdat ze niet te vertrouwen zijn ?

DOES THE EYE REALLY REFLECT THE HUMAN SOUL?  ARE WE RIGHT IF WE JUDGE PEOPLE BECAUSE WE IMAGINE WE SEE SOMETHING SUSPECT IN THEIR EYES?  DO PEOPLE HIDE THEIR EYES BECAUSE THEY HAVE SOMETHING TO HIDE?

In feite communiceren 'ogen' op zich ontzettend weinig over een mens. Spiertrekkingen van de wenkbrauwen en wimpers zorgen er wel voor dat een stel mythes rond de ogen in stand gehouden worden. In de werkelijkheid zijn de ogen maar een camera obscura; het hoornvlies een vel dat licht naar het netvlies richt. Ogen weggescheurd uit een kop zien er gevoelloos uit in een potje. De tekst en beelden in de film 'Evil-I' spelen met deze gegevens en was de eerste stap op mijn onderzoek naar ogen, het kijken, bekeken worden en werkelijk zien.

IN ACTUAL FACT THE HUMAN EYEBALL IS JUST AN AMORPHOUS GLOBE OF TISSUE THAT CAN COMMUNICATE NOTHING ON ITS OWN. IT'S THANKS TO THE MOVEMENTS AND GESTURES OF THE MUSCLE TISSUE SURROUNDING THE EYE WHICH RECEIVE PARTICULAR EXPRESSION THROUGH THE EYEBROWS AND LASHES THAT A PARTICULAR SET OF MYTHS CONCERNING THE EYE ARE UPHELD, WHEN IT'S REALLY JUST A CAMERA OBSCURA; THE CORNEA A TRANSLUCENT LAYER WHICH DIRECTS LIGHT TOWARDS THE OPTIC NERVE. EYES RIPPED OUT OF A HUMAN HEAD SEEM TO LACK FEELING WHEN STORED IN A JAR. THE TEXT AND THE IMAGES IN THE SHORT FILM 'EVIL-I' PLAY WITH THESE UNDERSTANDINGS AND ITS CREATION WAS THE FIRST STEP ON MY JOURNEY TOWARDS UNDERSTANDING EYES, LOOKING, BEING LOOK AT AND REALLY SEEING.

In deze korte animatie film waarin een tekst voorbij vliegt heb ik één van mijn ogen veilig geborgen achter een zelf-gemaakte viktoriaansachtig zelfaanpassendekunstglas. Ik wou iets uit een vergeten verleden opwekken toen mythes over de kracht van de ogen gewoner waren.  De kunstglas werd zelf gemaakt uit een oude bril een stukken getrokken uit een fotoaparaat die ik voorzichtig in elkaar plakte.  Het was zonder meer een poging om een fetisj te maken mijn blinde oog die ik van de wereld wou verbergen (in deze tijd heb ik werkelijk een soort oogklep ontworpen die ik kon hangen op twee wenkbrauwpiercings). De aandacht richten naar de blinde oog was ook een uiting van frustratie over het feit dat ik voelde dat ik me bevond in een cultuur die me specifiek uitsloot omdat ik geen stereoscopisch zicht had; na het barsten van mijn rechte oog in Hong Kong ben ik gestopt met mijn academische carrière and heb ik bijna tegelijkertijd beslist om me steeds meer met film bezig te houden. Toen is de 3-D technologie (die eist het gebruik van stereoscopisch gezicht)  een rage geworden.

IN THIS FILM, A SHORT ANIMATION WITH A TEXT WHICH FLIES BY, ONE OF MY EYES IS SAFELY HIDDEN BEHIND AN ARTIFICIAL LENSE DELIBERATELY INTENDED TO EVOKE A SENSE OF THE ARCHAIC AND THE VICTORIAN ERA WHEN MYTHS ABOUT THE POWER OF THE EYES WERE MORE WIDESPREAD.  I MADE IT OUT OF A PAIR OF OLD GLASSES AND BITS OF A CAMERA LENSE I CAREFULLY STUCK TOGETHER.  IT WAS A FETISHISATION OF MY ATTEMPT AT THE TIME TO HIDE MY EYE FROM THE WORLD (I ACTUALLY INVENTED AN EYE PATCH WHICH COULD HANG ON TWO CAREFULLY PLACED PIERCINGS).  DIRECTING THE ATTENTION TOWARDS MY BLINDED EYE WAS ALSO AN EXPRESSION OF FRUSTRATION AFTER FINDING MYSELF IN A CULTURE WHICH I AT THAT TIME IMAGINED WAS SPECIFICALLY EXCLUDING ME, i.e. AFTER THE MISERY OF MY RIGHT EYE BURSTING IN HONG KONG, GIVING UP MY ACADEMIC CAREER AND DECIDING TO MAKE FILMS, 3-D TECHNOLOGY (ONE REQUIRING STEREOSCOPIC SIGHT) BECAME ENORMOUSLY POPULAR.

De film, het gedicht en veel onderdelen uit een kunstinstallatie was mijn poging om de verlies van mijn zicht te verwerken maar ook te begrijpen waarom het me zo diep gekwetst heeft. Kwam het door het verlies zelf, door de manier waarop mensen me begonnen te bekijken of was ik werkelijk van binnenuit anders geworden (aldus het woordspel 'Evil-I'). Van achteraf bekijk ik de wereld natuurlijk anders maar deze film was het begin van mij zoektocht naar een heldere blik. Het is alleen dankzij dit onderzoek praktisch uitgedrukt in kunst dat ik mijn nieuwe toestand hebben leren aanvaarden en daarom laat ik nu het onderzoek zien.

THE FILM, THE POEM AND PARTS OF A MULTIMEDIA INSTALLATION WAS PERHAPS AN ATTEMPT TO MOURN THE LOSS OF MY SIGHT BUT ALSO TO UNDERSTAND WHY IT AFFECTED ME SO DEEPLY.  WAS HET CAUSED BY THE LOSS OF SIGHT, BY THE WAY I IMAGINED PEOPLE WERE STARTING TO LOOK AT ME OR HAD THE INJURY REALLY CAUSED INTERNAL CHANGES TO MY INNER SELF - CORRUPTING ME IN SOME WAY (HENCE THE WORD-PLAY 'EVIL-I').  IN RETROSPECT I SEE THE WORLD QUITE DIFFERENTLY BUT THIS FILM WAS THE BEGINNING OF THE JOURNEY I TOOK TOWARDS A MORE LUCID WAY OF SEEING.  IT IS ONLY THANKS TO THIS RESEARCH PRACTICALLY EXPRESSED IN ART THAT I'VE BEEN ABLE TO ACCEPT MYSELF AND THAT'S ONE OF THE REASONS I'M DISPLAYING THESE WORKS.

*New film EVIL-I [or the sad tale of the anti-gravity jug] uploaded.

This short film demonstrates through a combination of images, text and animation how the creation of a particular multiform art installation (concerning the human eye, looking and being looked at) actually taught me to see . . .

Does the eye really reflect the human soul? Are we right to judge people because we imagine we something suspect in their glance? Do people who hide their eyes necessarily have something they need to keep secret?

In actual fact the human eyeball is just an amorphous globe of tissue that can communicate nothing on its own. It's thanks to the movements and gestures of the eye lobe, the eyebrows and the eye lashes that a set of myths about the eye have been able to develop, when it's really just a 'camera obscura': the cornea is a translucent layer which directs light towards the optic nerve. Eyes ripped out of a human head seem to lack feeling when stuck in a jar of vinegar, apart from the obvious vulgarity of such a concept

One of the 'Objet's d'absurdité' which rears haphazardly in front of the enormous lobeless eyeball which forms the centre of the interactive installation in the title actually presents the possibility of such a horrible idea, namely  a flask labelled PROFESSOR WISE'S USED EWES' EYES and filled with fluid and faux sheep eyeballs.  As represented in this film, the utilitarian art installation which I made helped me explore many of these issues as I grappled to cope with the mutilation of my right cornea; it very much concerns what the eye does (looking) but also being looked at.

The omnipotent, abstracted eye reveals itself to be an enlarged version of an art-deco clock which centres the piece. This eye may be enormous and imposing, but it shares with time its inevitability and lack of emotion.  Like time, the eye unrestricted by eyelashes or eyebrows which could assign to it a set of emotions, this eye functions to reflect the person looking at it as much as the absurd objects set in front of it.

Because the film concerns a process of learning as much as it does a completed art-work, the film concludes with the sad-tale of the smaller sculpture within the entire piece which I was attempting to film individually. The piece known as the 'REX HOUSHOLD DISPENSARY'S [utterly unique] ANTI-GRAVITY JUG' comes to a bitter end, finally obeying the laws it has so long been able to ignore while positioned in front of the giant eye's gaze. Making this work has taught me however to learn from what I initially felt was a kind of inner corruption caused by my disability.

EVIL-I was put into storage for the six months I was made homeless by incompetent Belgian bureaucrats. Many pieces were damaged, and the anti-gravity jug as demonstrated in the film shattered into pieces while I attempted recently to film some of the individual art-works seperately. EVIL-I is, therefore, no more; this film is the only proof that it ever existed in that particular form.

With a new way of looking at the world, however, I've created a new work; very similar to the original but with a lot more penises (3 plaster cast models actually) as well as a metal, rather than a ceramic, Anti-Gravity jug. It includes newer works such as LUCY DYES which uses a hair dryer suspended in the air drying the wig on a distended female head which has sprouted leaves (Lucy dyes then Lucy dries her hair; oh how hard that girl tries). It's no coincidence that this piece is about the lucidity this and other works of that difficult period which involved the fetishisation of my blinded eye has taught me. The new version is called LUCID EYES and includes an absurd development to DR PRIMPROSE'S CRANIAL FLUID EXTRACTION DEVICE; the teapot sitting above the lamp pumps a murky fluid filled with motional glitter that appears to be attached to a human head.

It's interesting to note that the work itself is mounted primarily onto the top half of what in Dutch called a 'Vensterkast' [window cabinet]. In place of the mirror and the glasses usually placed behind a set of glass panels, there is still an aquarium in which a set of real tropical fish swim.

CREDITS:

The 'Evil-I' footage which demonstrates the multimedia installation in action was filmed at the 1000-Vuren building in Ghent where it was also used to store household items and hold an aquarium with living tropical fish on the 10th of October 2012.

The photos and films of the absurd items taken from 'EVIL-I' including the belated ANTI-GRAVITY jug were taken on the 2nd of February 2014 at the Nightshades Studios, Nieuwland 68 A & B, 9000 Ghent .

All photos, images and texts used in the film were created by Zachar Alexander Laskewicz and Nightshades Films maintains the copyright.

EVIL-I
[or the sad tale of the anti-gravity jug]
Version 1
18 February 2014
Ghent (Belgium).

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