Shot in colour on a set that was built to look as though it is shot in black and white, the film is a companion work to Basking in what feels like ‘An Ocean of Grace’… that throws the latter’s contemporary descriptions into historical relief. The film re-inhabits a Freudian case study where hypnosis is used to prove ‘negative hallucination’ (where the hypnotised subject becomes convinced the room is empty when it is not). Two voices are heard on the film’s soundtrack, that of the hypnotist and a teenage girl reading a case study that is the description of a man (Ben) being offered up as a story/subject for diagnosis. ‘Characters’ move around, dressed in stylistically esoteric costumes that point back to an Expressionist aesthetic and also occupy a strange, home made baroque present. The ‘authority’ of the case study, the rickety construction of the set and the faltering voice over maintain a precarious sense of balance. (Ian White)

Courtesy the artist and Carlier Gebauer, Berlin, STANDARD (OSLO) and Altman Siegal, San Francisco

• Sektion Section: Film
• Programm Programme: Emily Wardill 3