In The Shadow of The Dog   1999
PAL, colour, mono
Duration: 6.40’’
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Produced in co-operation with the University of Rovaniemi, Lappland.

“Oechsler’s works are subtly disquieting psychological dramas that provoke us to question the motive and meaning of the material presented. 

The work was filmed in the summer of 1999 in Rovaniemi, Lapland. It was inspired by a real-life story which was covered by the Finnish press earlier that year.


In the Shadow of the Dog   presents a series of visual chapters based on various news paper reports about the shooting of several men in a Helsinki gun club -  an attack, carried out by one of the club’s female members. The various stages of the narrative trace the fragmentary press reportage, in its desire to disclose information in order to make sense of what really happened.

Using eye witness reports, family and friends’ statements the telling of the story through performers blurs the boundaries between fact and fiction. In challenging our believe in the media’s representation of reality, the work implies the viewer’s own subjectivity in figuring out the real events. Thus indirectly, the work suggests that we can never know the full truth, but only grasp at it from individual points of view.

As the piece unfolds we are left with as many questions as answers regarding the origin and nature of the tale being told.”

(Excerpt from the Press Release for Docudrama, Bury St. Edmunds Art Gallery, May 2000)