Keren Cytter
Family, 2002
Family, 2002
5 min 35 sec, digital video, color/b-w/sound, Ed of 4+2AP
Usually produced in a cheap and simple way, the videos by Keren Cytter imitate the genre of documentaries and yet the quotes and clichés taken from popular culture, film, Pop music and trash literature expand them, propelling them into a purely fictitious world where our ability to grasp things is sorely tested.
For example, in The Family several levels of dialog blend, confusing us as gender roles and voices have been deliberately cross-wired. A young man mimes the role of a mother, the one-year old toddler is played by a 20-something-year-old man, the father is played by a young woman, and the other family members are played by the artist’s friends, who are her own age. The dialogs consist of a sequence of irrational insults and threats, mixed with wishes and praise. What makes this family conversation so bizarre is the clear absence of any “normal” conversation, replaced here by dark and hidden thoughts.
For example, in The Family several levels of dialog blend, confusing us as gender roles and voices have been deliberately cross-wired. A young man mimes the role of a mother, the one-year old toddler is played by a 20-something-year-old man, the father is played by a young woman, and the other family members are played by the artist’s friends, who are her own age. The dialogs consist of a sequence of irrational insults and threats, mixed with wishes and praise. What makes this family conversation so bizarre is the clear absence of any “normal” conversation, replaced here by dark and hidden thoughts.