Sacrificer
Video destructive works
circa 2023
For the person whose pain it is, it is “effortlessly” grasped (that is, even with the most heroic effort it cannot not be grasped); while for the person outside the sufferer’s body, what is “effortless” is not grasping it (it is easy to remain wholly unaware of its existence or may retain the astonishing freedom of denying its existence; and, finally, if with the best effort of sustained attention one successfully apprehends it, the aversiveness of the “it” one apprehends will only be a shadowy fraction of the actual “it”)
— Elaine Scarry, The Body in Pain
…Yes: one can make the decision to say “I believe he is in pain” instead of “He is in pain”. But that is all.— — What looks like an explanation here, or like a statement about a mental process, is in truth an exchange of one expression for another.
Just try - in a real case - to doubt someone else’s fear or pain.
— Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations
Sacrificer is a cycle of the last signals from dying objects: a series of works that destroyed the devices of their own production.
The cycle is composed of five works representing the points of view of eight cameras. These eight cameras represent dozens of cameras that have been mutilated and obliterated in numerous ways. Each was genuinely an experimental video. Each was a filmic take.
I don't know why some takes worked. Why, while most footage looked like dull malfunctions, I would be moved by some into something like identification or recognition — something hard and exacting to share.
Maybe they gleam some reflection, something of the horrors just outside the frame; something about the nature and pretexts of violence; something about humanization and dehumanization; something about points of view and technology and collapse. Something cruel, like empathy.
That's what I projected onto it, anyway.
— Jhonathtan Ofrath, Sacrificer.
Please Note
These videos were created with installation in mind*;
All but the first one are silent.
At the Stake
Video with sound, 04:12
A Puddle Seeps into the Ground
Video, 31:24
Versus
Video, 06:35
Drip
Video Installation, 8 Loops, 00:19~00:33
Burning Cross
Video Installation, 13:12
*I have done my best to make these online presentations clear about the works' form in real space, while remaining as unobtrusive as possible to the viewer’s experience and navigation.
On this platform and within my skill set, this has remained a compromise.
I am (as always) at the generosity of your imagination.
On this platform and within my skill set, this has remained a compromise.
I am (as always) at the generosity of your imagination.