Video installation
1920 x 1080, 1 min 50 sec on loop, 2016
Original Soundtrack from Twice Global: Tzuyu’s Official Apology
As the extension of the eye, cameras transcend human's imagination of time and space. Though specific operations, cameras can turn into powerful ideological machines, and easily seize subjects' autonomy. When the shutter opens, a power competition between the camera and the subject begins: the one who stands in front of the lens has only a brief time to respond to the force of the camera. A video clip released by a South Korean entertainment company in 2016 could be a good example of such a situation. On the screen, the audience can see a young girl apologising for recent representations in the media about her national identity. However, the helplessness in the girl’s facial expressions and other non-verbal communication are seen by viewers as evidence that the girl had been forced to apologise. As a result, members of the public react negatively against the entertainment company, in strong support for the girl’s rights. Whether intentional or not, as a filmed object, the action of the young girl could be seen as a performance with a certain strategy, contending the force of the camera. By turning the lens of the camera and reconstructing the image from the subject’s perspective, which otherwise never really exists, the work The Camera faces the dominant narrative power of the camera. After the entertainment company refuses to co-operate with this project, The Camera (16) works with a young performer, who is the same age as the young girl, from a famous South Korean star scouting website. Using methods such as the performer’s imagined re-enactment of the event and the recreation of the young girl’s view onto the office window, the process of the anonymous cameraperson shooting the young girl’s apology is reproduced as fictional documentary.
Still images from The Camera (16), 2016 © Musquiqui Chihying
