Lydia Shouten

Le Jardin Secret
Interactive 4-channel video-installation
6 x 6 x 3,35 m, 4 screens (28'), 2006
sound/music: Arjan Kappers | editor: Arthur Bueno
animations: Rob van Gameren
Ludwig Museum, Budapest, Hungary

“A group of people pass through the forest, bird-watching. Their excursion, which provides a way of escaping reality and seeking the beauty of existence, lasts from early morning till late at night. As the cyclical tour advances, the atmosphere becomes unclear, the people ultimately transformed into wanderers. They hang around a place, stirring under leaves, knocking at trees. Occasionally someone disappears in the woods for a period of time, only to join the group again in another forest. Now and then an animal appears, observed by the group, while mist starts to rise and fill all the screens, followed by a mini-drama. The plot brings about a sense of uncertainty and threat. With the end of a mini-drama, the image automatically returns to the wandering in the woods. It is a tour doomed to failure, in which the inability to change the status quo is translated into attempts to talk to birds and nature. ... (source)

Sexobject performance, 1979
metal frame with rubber bands and leather corset
Whipping to balloons, filled with black ink
Timespan: 30 min.
Galerie Felison, Velsen, Holland,
Project Arts Centre, Dublin, Ireland

Lydia Schouten was born in 1948 in Leiden, the Netherlands, and moved to Rotterdam in 1971 where she still lives and works. From 1978 onwards, Schouten's work can be divided into three periods: an exploration of performance art from 1978 to 1981; a period of work in video from 1981 to 1988; and since then, an ongoing interest in installation, often combining video, sound and photographic components. In all three periods certain thematic elements are apparent at Schouten's work. Femininity, isolation and the relation of mass media with sex and pornography are a few of the most frequent ones.
dubbel

Le Jardin secret (The Table)
2003, Ilfochrome photograph / plexiglass - dibond
120 X 180 cm

a wide variety of Lydia Shouten´s work can be found at her own page and here

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