Event 5: Hammer Museum- This is the end

This is the end is a showcase of three videos: "Even Pricks" by Ed Atkins, "Ditch Plains" by Loretta Fahrenholz, and "The Bible" by Tommy Hartung. Although the artists work independently for the videos, the final cut seemingly connect them together, making me believe that this is actually one single video piece. The themes of the videos are very dark: trauma, melancholy, surrealism and the uncanny. All three videos do not follow the conventional narrative strategy, namely they do not have a super clear story line. 

At the exhibit entrance

To be honest, I did not understand the full meanings of the videos until I read their descriptions. I won't pretend that I understand and will just talk about my feelings of the three pieces. The video was playing as I stepped into the completely dark room and found myself a seat at one of the two couches on the floor. 

The very first image I saw is a explosion and a line "That's all I seen." followed by images of shaky and broken grounds, indicating there is a huge disaster, both physically and potentially emotionally on the person experiencing it. The second image confirms my guess. Depicting a person hopelessly hitting his fist against the ground, it shows the deep depression and pain of the protagonist. 

   

The opening scene

Depression, pain of the protagonist

The most commonly seen image in the videos are thumbs-up and -down, appearing at least 10 times in various context. I interpret them as the emotional encouragement these desperate people give themselves as they faces extremely tough situations, such as wars, disasters depicted in the video.

    

Thumbs-up images in the video

There are also two particular shoots on thumbs-down that really caught my attention, as these thumbs are poking into a person's ears and eye. My interpretation of this is that this represents people's negative comments, self-criticism and one's lack of confidence. As eyes and ears are the two major organ people use to perceive the world and receive feedbacks from the others, a finger poking into the eye and ear symbolizes damages caused by criticisms and dispute reflected in other's actions.

 

Images of thumb poking into ear/eye

One video ended with a scene of an ape in a pinkish and light setting, putting up a bright smile. I interpret this as a symbolism that the protagonist finally defeated his lack of self confidence and negative emotions, and embrace a bright new life. 

Ending Image of a smiling ape

Coming out of the room, I feel a bit depressed but also have some sense of relief, happy that the protagonist pull through the tough period and grow into a stronger self. I can relate this video to our class in terms of its topic. Its topic is also depression, physical & emotional trauma after disasters. Psychologists have done a lot of research in studying these emotions and I believe the artists must refer to their studies as inspirations of the symbolizing images in the video. Coupled with the great video-shooting and after effect techniques, this video is definitely a great product of the collision of arts and science. Highly recommended to anyone!

Proof of Admission