Acorns Ixone
(2002-2006) 1 min. 30 sec.

The idea for the video project “Acorns” occurred to me during my daily run in the park as I was literally hit by something on my head. Immediately I thought about an assassin hiding in the bushes trying to break my solitary Zen of running and trying to trip me. Intimidated and confused but also determined to get to the core of the mystery I continued my run. It hit me again and again until I finally realized something else that was accompanying the steadily pounding sound of my feet hitting the ground - I looked up and saw the acorns falling from the sky – I thought: The Acorn doesn't fall far from the tree – and so I started collecting them.

I decided to use the acorn as the antagonist in a series of formal video portraits of women. The stillness that the first minute of the video requires of the actor is reminiscent of historical portraiture in painting and photography. Then in a moment of surprise the quiet scene is disrupted in a burst of violence and comic tension when hundreds of acorns start pouring over a woman’s head, who is still completely (e)motionless. At this point it transcends from still to moving image; the absurd act lasts about 30 seconds while the accumulating sound of acorns hitting her head and ground fills the space. After a while it seems as if a fountain of Acorns is shooting from inside the head instead of falling. The Acorns stop and the video starts over.

I now have 24 portraits. I could have done one, but I kept going. My obsessive collection of acorns and the accumulation of video portraits emphasize my gluttony for images and their commodity.

I use the humorous idea of nature (acorns) invading the screen, fighting back and attacking us, to talk about the medium itself. I explore how technology and the over-saturation of information have not only affected perception and aesthetics but also ethics. I am testing our limit of patience for looking at seemingly static images – while simultaneously trapping the audience with the sound of acorns and the element of surprise, to provoke thought, self-reflection and to reveal the irony that they are about to miss the premise of this work by running off to the next venue.

Extensions (remix)
(2001-2002) 12 min.

CLAUDIA SOHRENS

www.claudiasohrens.net

New technologies and ‘visual reconstruction’ have not only affected our perception and aesthetics but our communication systems and networks. I am interested in the dilemma of modern existence, commune & communication, and the change in language, social interaction and expectations, as well as our norms and value systems.

As computation becomes more ubiquitous and available in small, low power, networked and distributed form factors, computers have not only entered our shared social space but have taken over our social activities as substitutes for relationships.

In my videos I investigate visual language often I manipulate and restructure the perception of time and space, to heighten the spectator’s own sense of moment to seek a point at which the audience reaches its limits of endurance and transforms from witnessing an incident to experiencing it or interacting with it and help to let the viewer focus and turns action into thought and self-reflection.

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Claudia Sohrens is a German video artist and photographer, who is based in New York since 1997. Studied Fashion, Fine Art/ Visual Communications and Graphic Design in Hamburg as well as Photography in New York. Participated in artist residencies at the Bronx Museum (AIM 21) in New York and the International Academy of Painting & Photography, in Italy. Work has been included in exhibitions at the Bronx Museum and the Artists Space in New York, the Electronic Language Festival in Sao Paulo, the Project Space at Kunsthalle Wien, KW – the Institut for Contemporary Art in Berlin, as well as, Kampnagel KX and Westwerk e.V.  in Hamburg. Taught at Tisch School of the Arts/ NYU and is currently faculty at the School of the International Center of Photography and Pratt Institute.