BODY LINE, 2021, 10:01 minute, single-channel video with stereo audio. Performance and edit by Mari Amman (US/NO), sound composition and arrangement by Zainab Lax and Oh No Noh (DE). Filmed at Selbusjøen, Trøndelag, Norway. Created for first screening, July 2021, Prins Claus Conservatorium during The World We Live In Festival, July 2021, in Groningen, Netherlands. Based on the Norse shape shifting water nymph mythologies, the form gains a darkened torso during time on land, before rejoining with body of water. Symbolically drawing the human body and body of water as connected through the darkened core. The elemental nature of water becomes embodied by in the Body Line performance, exposing relationships between vision and body, landscape and humanity through the allegorical water nymph myth. The line between sensual and sexual is distinctly drawn by the arch of emergence, struggle, and return. During a liquidity of change in human sensory relationship to the environment, the visual impressions of the audio-visual experience are created to project in spaces and emerge on screens. The language of water and body, invites a memory of emergence to life. This video and those on this website are in the Videokunstarkivet, in Oslo, Norway. Contact: mariammanart@icloud.com to arrange for exhibitions or screenings of the film.
“Delicate and sober as always. The staging and performance of the slow and soft movements fit perfectly with the mountains and the water surrounding the figure. Had the video lasted two hours, I would still want to see more.” – John Wagner