Licking the Sky, Embracing the Shadow of a Fish in a Glance Upon the Surface
June 28, 2020artist contribution,
Deprived of physical contact the world became more distant. While our bodies are kept safe from infective agents, adverse effects include lower levels of oxytocin – a complex neurochemical hormone and transmitter that helps to reduce anxiety and maintain adequate immune response. Shielding, I’ve been reworking previously recorded material from my archives, looking for glimpses and sparks that transcend remote methods of communication to auraticly bridge feel and touch – screen and skin. Pairing an Iroha poem reading (a perfect pangram, that contains each character of the Japanese syllabary exactly once) echoed with footage of a grey parrot (the talking kind) and more abstract imagery, Licking the Sky, Embracing the Shadow of a Fish in a Glance Upon the Surface forms a short handheld observation of intimacy and care.
Jort van der Laan, Licking the Sky, Embracing the Shadow of a Fish in a Glance Upon the Surface, 2020, HD video loop, 1:59 min.
Jort van der Laan’s artistic practice of video and printed matter adresses the entangled relationship between immunity and community. Plural and porous, you will find body and mind presented as an assemblage that is, moreover, part of other assemblages — artistic / political / cultural / economic / spiritual / medical. Van der Laan completed his MA at the Dutch Art Institute, roaming; and a BA at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam. He was a resident artist at King’s College, London. His work has been presented at venues including Casco Art Institute: Working for the Commons, Utrecht; Rongwrong, Amsterdam; Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam; The Tokyo Art Book Fair, Tokyo; and Zico House, Beirut.
