HEIKE
BARANOWSKY

Racetrack, 2010

Racetrack, 2010

Racetrack centers around the sailing stone of Racetrack Playa, which play a significant role in the local mythology of the Death Valley, since from time to time they move over the ground and leave visible traces – a phenomenon that has not yet been fully scientifically explained.  Baranowsky’s video circles these stones and uses them like modules in a masterly composed piece of music: the images are repeated, mirrored, played forward and backward, syncopated, zoomed in or out.  A seemingly futuristic soundscape that suggests the sounds of wind and desert in one moment and a buzzing in one’s ears the next, enhances the hauntingly poetic effect of the work.  And if one squints, the piece might actually give the impression that stones of Racetrack Playa are moving.

 

3-channel video installation, Full HD, ca. 67 in. x 394 in., 4:17 min. loop, colour, 3-channel stereo, in sync

 

Sound: Titus Maderlechner

 

(1, 5, 6) Installation view at Galerie Barbara Weiss Berlin, 2010.

Exhibited as part of “Heike Baranowsky: Ubehebe“. Photo: Jens Ziehe

(2–4) Installation view at Kunsthalle Nürnberg, 2013.

Exhibited as part of “Heike Baranowsky: Time Traps”, curated by Ellen Seifermann. Photo: Annette Kradisch.

(7) Installation view at Lentos Museum, Linz, 2013.

Exhibited as part of “Heike Baranowsky: Time Traps”. Photo: maschekS