İsmail Eğler
Cubicals
Video, 1’50”
05 / 09 / 2013 – 28 / 09 / 2013
The work titled “Cubicals” deals with the tension between the individual and the groups that possess power, analyzing it within different layers of meaning. At the same time, Cubicals are elements that are parts of the same system, they can possess autonomous behavior, relate to each other and they’re open to interaction. They are free as long as they don’t cross the boundaries. The system that contains the Cubicals has at the beginning a natural and even poetic order. The elements are in tranquil motion within the area designated by the system. This state of obedience and compromise breaks down dramatically with the unexpected emergence of anarchic waves. The great crisis allows the elements to behave in alternative ways that could threaten the integrity of the system. As the elements realize their own potentials, they also discover that they can influence others around them.
The second layer of narration deals with the perception of time which is one of the main and recurring themes in the artist’s works. The subjective perception of time (which the artist calls “subjective time”) varies for each individual. Different people living the same event in the same space, experience a perception of time that’s not the same for each. The time experience of a person during an ordinary moment and the experience of that same person during an extraordinary moment are also different. In the work “Cubicals”, the movement of the camera in the Z axis, or rather its forward motion turns the situation into a grammatical issue. The speed of the camera changes at the moments of dramatic explosions. It speeds up, slows down and stops when necessary. The technique of digital programming allows the artist to make the system autonomous. Rather than a sequence in which every possible outcome is predetermined and known by the artist; the technology is utilized to create a setting in which the artist’s control is pulled back thus making the work behave in unpredictable ways.