The Blind Date project is about five confrontations of five pairs of artists. During a short period prior to the World Wide Video Festival they react to each other's work and thinking. This will result in five combined presentations.
Maria Pask likes to talk about her work at length but what she likes even more is telling personal stories and anecdotes. She sees her work as a 'personal narrative' which mirrors her life. The videos, performances and texts with her as the protagonist are partly autobiographical but are also partly based on fabrications. Especially unpleasant experiences are relived and re-edited into stories she likes better. In a grotesque-humorous style she reports on rare diseases and (sexual) threats. These happen to be the situations she often finds herself in, without saying that she lives an unwholesome life. That is a way of thinking she knows only too well from her religious upbringing. Her most recent works have a distinctly narrative element and are reminiscent of traditional allegorical art forms. The installation 'Church of the Poisoned Mind' (1998) is a good example of this. In a space made to look like a dilapidated church interior the walls are hung with photographs of two identical, naked young girls who look shyly into the camera. The pictures seem to aim at an erotic effect but the girls are embarrassed with their nakedness. In this sombre and slightly threatening atmosphere Pask recountes a story about a psychopath, Elliott Weird, who pursued her with his delusions during a stay in the USA. She tries not to draw conclusions, reserving that right for the viewer. Human suffering and the urge to learn how to deal with it are shown without prejudice but in a
penetrating way.
Pask's blind date is Norwegian artist Tommy Olsson.
– Nathalie Zonnenberg
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Production: W139, World Wide Video Festival
Maria Pask ° 1969, Cardiff (Wales)
Lives and works in Amsterdam (The Netherlands)
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