Muzak, 1'15 excerpt (original 3'30)
Muzak (2014) is a video-work that plays with and subverts the idea of music designed as a calming device. It was filmed in the elevator that forms the entrance and exit way to a gallery space on the 37th floor, in which it was subsequently shown. The video portrays a woman standing in this elevator, overlaid with a layer of text, as taken from a musical review of a classical concert. The imagery is accompanied by a self-composed score of discordant violin chords mixed with field recordings. In a series of medium and close-up shots of the woman’s body and face, her expressive reactions to the situation are captured in detail. It seems she acts as a medium that internalizes her environment and the sounds around her, translating and then emitting them through a variety of orally-produced utterances.