Gladko / Davis: One The Other Side - Force, Farce, False

I saw the video before reading Zhanna's description of the work. My original impression was a sort of early film noir, where a lot is about implication rather than a clear view. Shadows, lights, sounds. A number of images came to mind. 'Force, Farce, False' as a text written on an office door. It created a question for me. What would go on in the department of Force, Farce, False? It has an unfortunate element of truth to it looking at many aspects of the world around us. The change in light creating a very fluid image. Sirens and shadow. In her own description Zhanna looks at childhood memories, but I see space for both. Memories have many layers and memories feed new directions.

Video footage of the artist filming through the glass in the door of her children's room in her parents' apartment a moving, colour-changing image of light coming from the TV her father and mother are watching in their room: news bulletins and political talk shows broadcast by the official TV-channels in Belarus. The news and views shaped by the political situation in Belarus are a frequent subject of debate and discussion in the artist's family, as in many other Belarusian families. In this work, Zhanna Gladko combines memories from her childhood, when her parents put her to bed, left her alone and went to their room. Lying in her bed, Zhanna would look at the patterns on the glass and the changing reflections of light that would turn into scenes in her dreams. Reflecting on the topic of the unknown, the distance, the fears that imagination evokes in the absence of sufficient information, its fuzziness, its illusory nature. An attempt to understand the other, a glimpse into another reality, an awareness of one's own isolation and loneliness in the company of others. This door is a metaphor for the artist's attitude towards the events taking place in Belarus and the way they are presented by the media and social networks in the era of post-truth – the artist questions everything, she ambivalently perceives information flows, believing that only time will put everything in its place. (Gareth Davis)

Video footage of the artist filming through the glass in the door of her children's room in her parents' apartment a moving, colour-changing image of light coming from the TV her father and mother are watching in their room: news bulletins and political talk shows broadcast by the official TV-channels in Belarus.
The news and views shaped by the political situation in Belarus are a frequent subject of debate and discussion in the artist's family, as in many other Belarusian families.

In this work, Zhanna Gladko combines memories from her childhood, when her parents put her to bed, left her alone and went to their room. Lying in her bed, Zhanna would look at the patterns on the glass and the changing reflections of light that would turn into scenes in her dreams.
Reflecting on the topic of the unknown, the distance, the fears that imagination evokes in the absence of sufficient information, its fuzziness, its illusory nature.

An attempt to understand the other, a glimpse into another reality, an awareness of one's own isolation and loneliness in the company of others. This door is a metaphor for the artist's attitude towards the events taking place in Belarus and the way they are presented by the media and social networks in the era of post-truth – the artist questions everything, she ambivalently perceives information flows, believing that only time will put everything in its place. (Zhanna Gladko)

Zhanna Gladko, video
Gareth Davis, music