Helen Dowling's (b. 1982)) area of interest lies within human capabilities and the expectations that are formed around them. Often creating situations in which human physical and mental capability are generalized, she pushes them to the point where they become alternative ways of being or markers of potential. Her practice seeks to blur the distinctions between the "normal" and the "stigmatized", by showing that our expectations of what it is to be normal determine how we perceive the performance of others. Helen Dowling is currently a research fellow at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
The video installation "untitled John" (2010) shows fragments of intimate close ups of an old man's face, shoulder, hand or arm. As we watch the protagonist of the video a number of interruptions come in to play. The once steady man shakes or moves, the filming of the camera suddenly jumps or falls out of focus or a manipulation in the editing makes a few frames repeat over and over like a digital glitch. The sequence of video is deliberate as if creating a conversation between two screens. Despite the spatial environment of the video installation the inaccessibility of an individuals experience of his physicality is reiterated again and again.
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