“The large felt square Sea Sick Passenger develops the formal language of previous felt ‘screens’ and introduces new elements. Its aspect ratio moves from 35mm’s wide rectangle to the square image of 16mm. Instead of being hanged, it is laid out on the floor, where the material thickness just about casts a shadow. Like its predecessors, it is difficult to read, but especially so due to its scale and placement on the floor. The only perspective from which it is legible is looking down as you walk around it. The reader’s body is introduced into the cinematic matrix, mimicking the movement of a typewriter arm across the page before scuttling back to begin the next line. There are too many things going on. Keeping the body and mind attuned while walking and reading makes it almost impossible to absorb the entire text. (…) Continuity collapses and fragments of text jump around, passages are cut up and certain phrases emphasised. The reader becomes the editor, sequencing these fragments into new narratives.” (Ben Borthwick)


 

Sea Sick Passenger, 2014

cut-out text on felt, spotlight 450cm x 450cm Images: Installation view at Vistamare Pescara, 2014. Photo: Giovanni Di Bartolomeo © Rosa Barba