Competition Gallery
Gemma Marmalade
Still from video projection
In 1957, when conducting extra sensory perception trials with animals, parapsychologists discovered that pigeons were able to determine the sexuality of humans through visual observation. Strange Birds is a film in triptych panorama that reconstructs a typical laboratory observational experiment. The synchronised ‘blinking’ outer frames articulate the exchange in telepathic mental images transferred between the subjects. This representational ‘minds eye’ creates visual puns and palindromes. The title is taken from Polari (slang used in queer subculture) whereby ‘a strange bird’ suggests someone of peculiarity and/or indeterminable sexual preference.
View the original installation here
Still of original installation in situ
In 1957, when conducting extra sensory perception trials with animals, parapsychologists discovered that pigeons were able to determine the sexuality of humans through visual observation. Strange Birds is a film in triptych panorama that reconstructs a typical laboratory observational experiment. The synchronised ‘blinking’ outer frames articulate the exchange in telepathic mental images transferred between the subjects. This representational ‘minds eye’ creates visual puns and palindromes. The title is taken from Polari (slang used in queer subculture) whereby ‘a strange bird’ suggests someone of peculiarity and/or indeterminable sexual preference.
View the original installation here
