A video camera has been fixed to the head of a sheep. The sheep is let loose among other sheep. The camera registers the movements and perspective of the sheep carrying the camera and the reactions of the other sheep to the 'stranger in their midst'. The sheep runs again and again towards the other sheep. The other sheep are afraid of it, of its gear. The sheep stands at a distance looking with bewilderment at the others. You almost see it thinking. Its head moves from left to right and it again attempts to join the flock. The recording has not been edited. It is in real time. The parts where the camera falls out because of heavy shaking are also shown. The video recording stops at a random moment. It seems like the sheep take flight and the camera is thrown off. Easterson uses unedited video here. Real-time is important for him because of its quality of immediacy. His ideas are straight from the shoulder and frank. The work speaks for itself. The videos he makes are a kind of hybrid 'video sculpture' of the camera and the moving objects to which it is attached. Earlier 'video sculptures' were combinations of a camera/popcorn popper and a camera/vacuum cleaner. They are investigative as well as simple. Easterson does not use complicated, state-of-the-art equipment, just an ordinary camera that can be bought in any shop. He likes the idea that the same kind of camera people use to film their children playing football can be used to study the working of a vacuum cleaner.
– Nathalie Zonnenberg
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Sam Easterson ° 1972, Hartford (USA)
Lives and works in Minneapolis (USA)
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