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.
The exhibition “Look At Me! Portraits and Other Fictions from the ”la Caixa” Contemporary Art Collection” examined portraiture, one of the oldest artistic genres, through a significant number of works of our times. Paintings, photographs, sculptures and videos shaped a labyrinth of gazes that invite spectators to reflect themselves in the social mirror of portraits.
Ali Sami is born in Rusçuk in 1866, and moves to İstanbul. Because his family is registered in the Beylerbeyi quarter of Üsküdar, Ali Sami is also called Üsküdarlı Ali Sami. He graduates from the Mühendishane-i Berri-i Hümayun in 1866 and becomes a teacher of painting and photography at the school.
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