A naked woman is acting as if the camera were a large mirror, or concealed behind a large mirror. Wrapped up in thought, she surrenders to the play of the image she is creating, dresses herself in jewellery and feathers, places several chains round her neck, puts on a golden fig leaf, a beret with feathers, a boa, a handbag in red velvet and many other things. Everything is extravagantly decorated with embroidery and precious stones. Meanwhile, a voice-over in the first person tells a story about a little princess who liked, when young, to play with gems when she was with her father. When her father dies the girl is orphaned, and is brought up by her relations in a rich aristocratic milieu. The little girl grew up and lived a long and happy life, had children and even grandchildren, to whom she retells the story of this little princess who played with precious stones. The story that is narrated appears to look back on the life of this particular woman, just as the splendour and magnificence of the gems seems to link back to a life of riches and to the brilliance of the few scanty memories of the princess's father. Together the image and the story suggest a personal history, an intimate report, and the nakedness of the woman alone in front of the camera reinforces this suggestion. Hodel displays herself as the personification of the story and the emotions it describes. In slowly veiling her body she distances herself from the camera, transforming a personal into a universal emotion. This game of coupling the image of her own body/physicality to the story of another woman from another time and place is characteristic of the series 'Past Life', in which Hodel looks for ways of making visible the tension between body and mind, intimacy and publicity.
– Carla Hoekendijk |
Voice, assistant: Tracy Leipold
Editing: Seth Price
Music: 'Bolero' - Ravel
Ursula Hodel, 1934, Solothurn (Switzerland)
Lives and works in New York (USA)
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