Johari's Window 2000
Installation view: hers - video as female terrain at the Steirisherbst, Joanneum, Graz, Austria 2000.
Four channel video projection installation
Sequence Duration 20”
Synchronised looped playback
Exhibition format DVD
Commissioned by FACT and Tate, Liverpool for The Other Side of Zero, Video Positive 2000, premiered at Tate Liverpool.
“Conceived as a filmic exposé of adult relationships and ‘the games we play’’, Johari’s Window takes its title from a psycho-analytic model used in therapy. The model divides the personality into four cells, which are drawn in relation to the way a person is affected by feedback and self-disclosure from a group. As with most of Oechsler’s recent work, a group of females are the subject of her explorations. In the case of Johari’s Window the members of the group encounter each other over an evening of poker. While the game progresses through various highs and lows, we become aware of the tensions that inform the group’s dynamic.
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The action of the game takes us through a series of emotional shifts, turns of events and verbalisations. Oechsler considers herself to be a facilitator of the group scenarios she invents, and like a therapist, creates a heightened awareness of emotions through improvisation and role playing.
The work was filmed with a specially constructed camera rotating device, enabling four cameras to synchronously record the action from the centre of a large round table. The peculiar effect of the rotating cameras combined with the vast space it was recorded in, draws the viewer into a mesmerising experience, similar to that of looking through a kaleidoscope.” (Excerpt from Video Positive 2000 Catalogue, Tate Liverpool and Fact Liverpool) |