Weaving a connective tissue: A fabric that mediates exchange. The word ‚textus‘, borrowed from Latin, is being used in a metaphorical way. In Stitches in the Heart (2019), a multiple exposure 16 mm short film of a minimally invasive cardiac surgery on the mitral valve, I traced the processes of sewing. The operation was performed by means of endoscopic 3D videography. The film introduces a series of works that I aim at making in various surgical fields. I am particularly interested in how new technologies change the handiwork of surgeons and the whole setting in the operating room. The film was realized a few months before the coronavirus confinements. Since then I was not able anymore to do research at the hospital. Due to the COVID-19 restrictions I had to interrupt my planned activities at the clinic.
The operating theater right at our front door: Hygiene measures structure our everyday life and the ways we engage with each other. Social distancing is the new credo. Numbers of infected persons and corona deaths. A politics of anxiety in which the medium is the massage. A perfect time to reflect on what is important in life. I developed an immense desire to work with my hands. Immediately before the crisis I was invited to do a screening at the Visual Arts department at University of California San Diego. I brought my Bolex 16 mm camera with me and shot a short film of a garden in a canyon and primates and flamingos at the zoo in San Diego. All together I did six exposures of 30,5 meters of color film. Lisa’s (2020) is dedicated to my colleague and friend Lisa Cartwright who invited me to introduce a selection of my recently produced shorts to her students.
The virus and its blossoms: I arrived at home on the day before the corona lockdown. Entering an uncanny quiet. I made a first sound walk and captured Vienna’s scapes of silence. Sound is interiority. Early in the morning I would open the bedroom windows, hang out two microphones and record the singing of the birds. There is a wonderful cherry tree in the courtyard of my apartment house that was just beginning to bloom. I took my Bolex camera and would make recordings of the flowering of the tree every day. Cherry Tree (2020) is the result of 24 exposures of color film. Each recording has been documented in my notebook. For this film I treated the emulsion as vulnerable material that needs to be handled with much care.
Please send me an email: christina.lammer@corporealities.org, and I will forward you the Vimeo password that you need to watch the films.
Christina Lammer