Details — Click to read
Saskia Olde Wolbers’ video work, Pareidolia, 2011, from which this limited edition still is taken, creates a narrative based on events surrounding the creation of Eugen Herrigel’s book, Zen in the Art of Archery, published in 1948.
The term Pareidolia describes the tendency of human perception to find meaning in incidental structures and to seek patterns in random data – for example images of animals or faces in clouds. The film, typical of the artist’s approach to film-making, is entirely analogue and shot inside model sets crafted by the artist. This film fuses footage of university lecture theatre, an archery hall and various traditional Japanese interiors that fold into themselves, alternated with animatronic birds drinking from dripping plants.
This limited edition was created in response to the Karl Blossfeldt exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery in spring 2013. Blossfeldt (1865–1932) is recognised for his extensive and unique collection of photographic plant portraits that reveal the tactile qualities, intricate forms and uncanny aspects of flora that could also be said to contain elements of Pareidolia.
