One The Other Side–Force, Farce, False

I saw the video before reading Zhanna’s description of the work. My initial impression was of a kind of early film noir, where a lot is about suggestion rather than clear vision. Shadows, lights, sounds. A series of images came to mind. Force, Farce, False’ written on an office door. It raised a question for me. What would happen in the department of Force, Farce, False? It has an unfortunate element of truth to it, looking at many aspects of the world around us. The change of light creates a very fluid image. Sirens and shadows. In her own description, Zhanna looks at childhood memories, but I see room for both. Memories have many layers and memories feed new directions.

Video footage of the artist filming through the glass in the door of her children’s room in her parents’ apartment a moving, colour-changing image of light coming from the television her father and mother are watching in their room: news bulletins and political talk shows broadcast by the official television channels in Belarus. The news and views shaped by the political situation in Belarus are a frequent subject of debate and discussion in the artist’s family, as in many other Belarusian families. In this work, Zhanna Gladko combines memories from her childhood, when her parents would put her to bed, leave her alone and go to their room. Lying in her bed, Zhanna would look at the patterns on the glass and the changing reflections of light, which would become scenes in her dreams. Thinking about the unknown, the distance, the fears that the imagination evokes in the absence of sufficient information, its vagueness, its illusory nature. An attempt to understand the other, a glimpse of another reality, an awareness of one’s own isolation and loneliness in the company of others. This door is a metaphor for the artist’s attitude towards the events in Belarus and the way they are presented by the media and social networks in the post-truth era–the artist questions everything, she perceives the flow of information ambivalently, believing that only time will put everything in its place. (Gareth Davis)

Video footage of the artist filming through the glass in the door of her children’s room in her parents’ apartment a moving, colour-changing image of light coming from the television her father and mother are watching in their room: news bulletins and political talk shows broadcast by the official television channels in Belarus.
The news and views shaped by the political situation in Belarus are a frequent subject of debate and discussion in the artist’s family, as in many other Belarusian families.

In this work, Zhanna Gladko combines memories from her childhood, when her parents would put her to bed, leave her alone and go to their room. Lying in her bed, Zhanna would look at the patterns on the glass and the changing reflections of light, which would become scenes in her dreams.
Thinking about the unknown, the distance, the fears that the imagination evokes in the absence of sufficient information, its vagueness, its illusory nature.

An attempt to understand the other, a glimpse of another reality, an awareness of one’s own isolation and loneliness in the company of others. This door is a metaphor for the artist’s attitude towards the events in Belarus and the way they are presented by the media and social networks in the post-truth era–the artist questions everything, she perceives the flow of information ambivalently, believing that only time will put everything in its place. (Zhanna Gladko)

Zhanna Gladko, video
Gareth Davis, music