WRESTLING

by Jen DeNike (2003)

"Wrestling", 2003, video, color, sound, 3:06 min. loop


Jen DeNike places individuals in artificially staged social situations as a means of investigating the myriad ways in which we are socially conditioned. She does not work with professional actors, instead discovering her subjects in everyday locations and situations. Trained as a photographer, DeNike’s videos are short continuous loops that focus on a single action or a series of singular actions. Recent works concentrate on the rituals and emotive physical states of adolescence: powerplay, sexuality, initiation, vulnerability, latent aggression and detachment are fused into powerfully evocative images.



"Wrestling", 2003, video, color, sound, 3:06 min. loop

The latent aggression, competition and erotic physicality of the ritualized, sometimes laughable rivalry between adolescents is revealed in Wrestling (2003), a work which impressively illustrates the playful dialectic of dependence and self-determination, the struggles involved in growing up and dealing with social expectations, vulnerability and a role model that requires belligerent behaviours.

In both video and photography Jen DeNike always works with non-actors. Her strategies include brief instructions to the participants, little or no camera movements with the end result culminating in un-edited one-takes. Jen DeNike’s personal experiences are closely woven into her works, which deal with her daydreams, observations and obsessions. By letting the audience witness personal, at times intimate situations without unduly exposing the protagonists, her works unfold meanings that go far beyond the individual, subjective, or personal.



"Dunking", 2004, video, color, sound, 3:19 min. loop




Click on the image above or follow the link below to see her work installed at KW Berlin in 2006. Enjoy.

http://www.berlinerkunstkontakter.de/kunstwerke02092006.htm