In the middle of a meticulously controlled setting (a smooth and sterilized beach), three impassive men seem to be absorbed by minimal, ritualized and enigmatic actions. Two of the protagonists play with the third one, whose pink bathing cap echoes the pink ball of the Sony Aibo dog seen at the beginning of the video. This type of robot is indeed programmed to be attracted by the pink color.
“...In Pink Ball the protagonists are aware of the omnipresent gaze: today photography and film no longer capture the world; the tables have been turned and the world now bows to the mechanical device. The catastrophe of the Twin Towers was choreographed exclusively for the lens of the camera, and the still cameras of CNN and CBS wait day by day for the bombing in Baghdad in order to transfer the spectacle to celluloid. The anticipatory freeze of the bodies in Pink Ball at the exact moment of confrontation with the camera is a freeze into ”pre-photographic” photography. The male poses embody a photography which has evolved from images projected so often that the subject identifies with them both mentally and physically...“
Philipp Kaiser essay published in exhibition catalogue ANNIKA LARSSON - Museum fur Gegenwartskunst, Basel 2003
Cast:ANNIKA LARSSON
Tags:Annika Larsson, Video Art, art, installation, "Pink Ball" and 2011