Where Are You?

Michiko Tsuda, Where Are You?, HD data, 8:06, 2008. (© Michiko Tsuda)

Where Are You? is a site-specific video work. Vertical mirrors are placed in the center of the room, and a video camera captures the reflections of the mirrors. The objects in the mirrors and the objects behind the mirrors are optically merged in the camera view. For example, when one person stands in back of and one in front of the mirrors, the bodies merge into one figure in the camera view. To create the visual effects provided by the symmetrically placed mirrors, I carefully choreograph the placement of professional performers into the space. The performers in the video are agents charged with exploring the hidden visual mechanisms created by the mirrored images. The cameraperson, as viewer, also comes into play in this work; when the camera “sees” a video camera in the mirror without revealing the viewer, it reveals aspects of the mechanics of seeing itself.

Michiko Tsuda
Tokyo National University of the Arts, Tokyo, Japan.
Web: www.2da.jp/2da/en/home.html.

Updated 27 January 2010