Video: Ineffective Words

Stimuli:

"Words are an awful way to explain things to each other." –Vincent Van Gogh

Imagine you are in emotional, mental, and physical pain but did not have the power of speech. You can hear, you can see, you can feel, you can think, and you can move, but no one seems to recognize your pain or tries to stop it. Even if you have the power of speech, the words are incapable of expressing what you feel. Communication seems vain.

The Design:

Along with Van Gogh's quote, I found bunch of photocopied pictures of a performer tied in rope expressing sorrow in an old collection of references. It seemed perfect for the concept.

I thought bandage could represent words. Two performers pushing and pulling each other would represent communication. I didn't do a concept design for the characters. I bought some white sheets at Oxfam and made as much bandages, brought them to the night of the shoot and sculpted the performers with the bandages. Thanks to Mafalda Cruz and Titi Dimak for helping out with the shooting.

Thanks to Raul Fuertes-Fuertes for the beautiful piano improvisation during shooting for to help the performers. (You can listen to the recordings in the Extras page)