A Perfect Cloud, Collaborative work by Nicholas Hoffman  & Nadia Perlov

Double video installation

Nicholas Hoffman: music video installation, 07:50

Nadia Perlov: animation projection on plexiglass installation, 07:12

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Nicholas Hoffman (*1985) is an artist and musician from the U.S. living and working in Vienna (Austria). Nadia Perlov (*1990) is an Israeli artist studying at Staedelschule,living and working in Frankfurt (Germany) and Tel Aviv (Israel). Hoffman and Perlov share a high appreciation for music and humor. Both work in different medias such as drawing, performance and video.

 

The work has been commissioned for the Pavilion coop, Bangkok Biennial 2018. Hoffman and Perlov  have been comissioned to work together because of their joint intention to formulate provocative critiques of societies, often in humorous and playful ways. The result of their collaboration for this exhibition are two video installations. Both videos contain fractions of a singular text which Hoffman and Perlov assembled together, an amalgamation of original text as well as appropriated content from pop music lyrics, poetry, television commercial slogans and hypnosis tutorials. In both videos, Hoffman and Perlov fantasticalize their thoughts on communication and cultural myths. Perlov’s video is a subtle computer-generated animation depicting a generic landscape consisting of a hut and a tree surrounded by its skyscape. The simple constellation reveals a complex system; every leave rustles, small birds come and go as the daylight swirls and collapses to bring night. The hypnotic narrator continually wavers between non-sense and deep wisdom. Change becomes a circular feature in the spoken words as well as in the animated world where nature plays a crucial role.  The videos focus on the role of the human voice and the need for storytelling in the production of meaning. 

 

For the exhibition coop, both installations share a material aesthetic, using wires, bricks and the earth itself. A Perfect Cloud, is installed separately in the space; as the title refers to a contemporary imagination for the future, both videos are giving the viewer a perspective beyond the cliché of the perfect cloud out of Silicon Valley. 

 

Text by Muriel Meyer