The Chase  2001/2004

​PAL, colour, mono
Duration: 3.30” 

Commissioned by the South West Media Development Agency, Bristol with financial assistance from the Arts Council of England’s National Touring Programme & additional financial support from South West Arts.

“Monika Oechsler's video 'The Chase' touches on the genre of Film Noir and the psycho-thriller.  A male and female performer encircle each other in a never ending race, each going to their maximum level of physical strength. With the simultaneous gazes of both the camera and viewer we become implicit in the construction of difference and desire.”

(Excerpt from the exhibition brochure “There is no accounting for other peoples’ relationships”, Ormeau Baths Gallery, October 2002)

With The Chase, Oechsler succeeds in creating a feeling of threateningly intense psychological strain with simple means. The physical and nerve-racking tension of the female runner can be directly empathised. The interpretation of the racing situation, however, is left completely open. It is reminiscent of the archetypal nightmare of not being able to escape a pursuer because of not being able to move from the spot despite great effort. It can also be understood as a race between two people who are a couple; whose rivalry is that much more aggressive because of the intimacy of their relationship. The video consciously refuses to offer a deeper psychological analysis of the scene inasmuch as it does not offer any background information on the runners’ personalities. In The Chase Oechsler isolates a feeling of psychological pressure and portrays it in its purest form.”

(Excerpt from the exhibition catalogue videonale 9, text by Jan Verwoert).