Arachne-Vanitas

single woman-glances in time. In the collection of electrostatic images that comprise this work, the body speaks symbolically, in multiple emotional and mental ways. Inspired by a photograph taken 20 years ago that was brought to my memory by the discovery of a similar image in the newspaper, I divided the exhibition (based on variations of the figure of a black woman dressed with necklaces and bracelets) into four sequences -desires, identity vertigo, territories and silences. In Miradas en el Tempo, there are homogeneous parameters, governed by my background in music and the plastic arts. These parameters are rhythm, time, metamorphosis and sequencethe latent foundation of temporal consciousness in all of my work. Note 1. Miradas en el Tempo is a series of electrostatic images made with a Canon Color BubbleJet A-I, Canon Color Laser 500 and IPU-Canon CLC 10 Computer. 100 Words on Works Fig. 2. Franziska Megert, ArachneVanitas , video installation , 1993. The insta11ation consists of videotapes, combining images of a spider and two women, installed in two towers of video monitors and players. ARACHNE-VANITAS Franziska Megert, Schwarzenburger 17, CH-3007, Bern, Switzerland. Arachne-Vanitas (1991) is a video installation composed of two towers-each consisting of three monitors and three videotape players (Fig. 2). The work is the second part of a trilogy that deals with paradoxes of the simultaneousness ofthe other. (The first part of the trilogy is Playing With Fire; the third part, Philemon & Baukis.) Many myths and legends from different regions and times deal with a dualistic interpretation of the spider's character. This iconographic background is the fertile ground for associative trains of thought provoked by the Arachne myth. The spider can be an evil demon, responsible for the plague and associated with death. It is also invulnerable . At the same time, it is creator and guardian. It has healing power in some ethnic medicine practices, and in some regions it acts as a midwife. Spiders change into virgins and fairies, into demons and vampires. Arachnethe idea of transformation of female creatures into spiders-is very old. It is a Hellenic myth written down by Ovid in Metamorphosis. To make the work, I first shot a black spider walking several times over a white surface. I made a black-and-white "key-tape" by enlarging some spider shots and by mixing eight "spider-walks" on the screen at more or less the same time. In the video studio, I connected three recorders to three camera-sets placed in a vertical row in order to shoot one person in three sections (head and chest, main part of the trunk, legs). The postproduction consisted of replacing the information in the spider key-tape with the tapes made of two women (one younger, one older) in the video studio. For one monitor tower, I replaced the white part of the spider key-tape with the image of the older woman, and I replaced the black information in the spider tape with the image of the younger woman. The second monitor-tower was similarly made, except the image of the young woman replaced the white part of the spider key-tape and the image of the older woman replaced the black part. The sound is a mix of chirp-noises of crickets. The Arachne-Vanitas concentrates on that which is not, never will be, yet has always existed. The body of an old woman and a young woman are interwoven by keyed-in spider shapes into one single ageless body that loses materiality within the immateriality of the video image. The corporal transcends materiality and shifts to the metaphysical level, where the human being lives a paradoxical nature-longing for yet fearing the unknown: eternity and death. They are both the same and yet they exclude one another. The transitory seeks eternity, and the eternal yearns for transitoriness. POKING AT THE ENVIRONMENTAL FIRE H. Anderson Turner 111,2474 Brentwood Road, Bexley, OH 43209, U.S.A. Environmental art-art made to raise awareness-is becoming more prevalent as concerns about the condition of the planet continue to rise. However, no matter how environmentally significant an artist's message may be, the act ...