No Sunshine, 1997,
5 min, colour, sound
Courtesy of the artist and of Galerie Anita Beckers, Frankfurt
Bjørn Melhus makes short films that are conceived as fairy stories, featuring himself. In No Sunshine, a video influenced by the aesthetic of the music video and by advertising, four identical-looking characters communicate in pairs through snatches of pop songs and occasionally look straight at the camera as though questioning or flirting with the spectator. Strange, childish-looking bodies seem to float in a virtual space which is at the same time their own inner world. Red is the dominant colour in this electronically created virtual world in which the characters have artificial hair – like Playmobil figures – and tight clothes, bringing to mind the human clones of science-fiction television series. The characters seem to be sexually neuter but among them we can sense looks, caresses and timidly seductive attitudes that speak of repressed desires.
This life-size portrait of a girl is a fine example of the British art of portrait painting in the early 18th century. The child is shown posing on a terrace, which is enclosed at the right foreground by the plinth of a pillar; the background is mainly filled with trees and shrubs.
Three figures in Eastern dress are shown in repose against an exotic landscape, smoking pipes and playing mangala. Inventories of the royal collections from 1739 identify the members of this group as the royal eunuch Matthias and two odalisques.
Knowledge of plants and the practice of healing are closely entwined. The toxic or hallucinogenic nature of some roots, and the dangers associated with picking them, conferred a mythical or magical character and power.
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