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friday the thirteenth, 6m23s, 2020
Veronica Spiljak's video work Friday The 13th (2020) compiles footage of certain moments and actions that causes her discomfort and anxiety. Spiljak begins the video by marking each day down on her calendar, seen as snippets throughout the video. These clips taken from video archives show her process of peeling out nails from the walls, filling them with plaster, sanding, pouring, and painting the walls. Spiljak turns this mundane process of painting her studio walls, which is a safe space for intimacy and privacy, into one filled with uncertainty and isolation. The camera is oriented to question how she handles each tool unsafely and what things can go wrong, such as spilling the bucket of paint while pouring, plucking out nails improperly with pliers and over sanding.
Friday The 13th adds on a series of clips that also show uncertainty elements that address claustrophobia themes, driving anxiety and sound trauma. This is shown from the crowds of people walking downtown at night, a girl squeezing balloons right before they pop, fear of running out of gas while driving and the risk of driving in a snowstorm. Other clips that were not repeated are videos of her own or found through internet archives. She ties the video with her marking off the days on her calendar during the month of March, which was when the Coronavirus escalated into a global pandemic. As she marks each passing day, the videos either speed up, get cropped or distorted, and loops back to the video's beginning, indicating a never-ending cycle. The sequence of editing, sound effects and filters used in the video comment on how the pandemic contributed to our collective trauma and initiated our uncertainty for our future.
We experience these emotions more so in these unprecedented times. This ongoing practice investigates the nature of how we develop mental illnesses like anxiety and trauma. Spiljak's work documents these events leading up to the global lockdown on March 13th to allow her audience to share this connection and feelings of grieving, loss and doubt with her audience through this dialogue.
Friday The 13th adds on a series of clips that also show uncertainty elements that address claustrophobia themes, driving anxiety and sound trauma. This is shown from the crowds of people walking downtown at night, a girl squeezing balloons right before they pop, fear of running out of gas while driving and the risk of driving in a snowstorm. Other clips that were not repeated are videos of her own or found through internet archives. She ties the video with her marking off the days on her calendar during the month of March, which was when the Coronavirus escalated into a global pandemic. As she marks each passing day, the videos either speed up, get cropped or distorted, and loops back to the video's beginning, indicating a never-ending cycle. The sequence of editing, sound effects and filters used in the video comment on how the pandemic contributed to our collective trauma and initiated our uncertainty for our future.
We experience these emotions more so in these unprecedented times. This ongoing practice investigates the nature of how we develop mental illnesses like anxiety and trauma. Spiljak's work documents these events leading up to the global lockdown on March 13th to allow her audience to share this connection and feelings of grieving, loss and doubt with her audience through this dialogue.
Installation Photos
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©
2023 Veronica Spiljak, All Rights Reserved
