Jeamin Cha

Hysterics
Single channel video installation, 2014, HD video, 7minutes, color/sound

Hysterics was made, inspired by a particular scene of Heinrich Heine’s poem “The Vale of Tears” (1881), in which a coroner reveals the cause of death of a miserable couple. Realizing that the death of the couple tends to be overshadowed by the narrative centered around coroner’s ingenuity, I started to inquire about the relationship between the hysteric and questioning subject. In Hysterics, I picture the relationship between the states of “meaninglessness” and of being hysteric, through a theatrical situation where blank paper and the lightings interact with each other. Moving on a circular track, the camera gazes a situation inside of the track. Here the camera represents the one and only gaze, or a gaze that doesn’t run off the track (This video is shot in a single take). As the camera circles along the track, it casts black lights on the paper and makes visible the stains of liquid spattered on the paper. The black light is used as a scientific instrument in criminal investigations as the light illuminates the phosphorus in bones and blood. Pain makes people raise questions, and those who question become hysteric. Those who refuse to take easy explanations would keep questioning until they find the fundamental reason behind all the skin-deep answers. And these are the people who would feel difficulty in controlling their emotions. (Since hysteria is itself an utter shock and a signal that the subject fell into confusion). Going hysterical, the neurotic questioners will find the “real” victims.

A Film by
Jeamin Cha

Cast
Siseup Kim
Jungwon Lee
Youngji Hur

Producer Work on Work
Director of Photography Seongtaek Lee
Music Minwhee Lee
Assistant Youngji Hur
Sound Recording and Design Morceau J. Woo

With Special Thanks to
Dongseok Shin, Areum Woo

Supported by DOOSAN Gallery