Agnieszka Polska

I Am The Mouth

2014

  • Agnieszka Polska, I Am The Mouth, 2014, Videostill

    1 Channel video projection, colour, sound, HD, 05'45"

‘I am the mouth that produces waves’ is one of the sentences repeated from the intense red lips floating in a dreamy seascape of lazy waves. These waves of sound are transmitted from the substance of the sea. We hear these seductive, even erotic lips also whispering: ‘I cannot describe what I see at the bottom of the sea.’ But we get a little hint: ‘There are ideas that can only be expressed in a language, which has not yet been discovered.’ That might be the important clue to understand the intention of the work. It seems that Agnieszka Polska is seeking such a language. The text of the animated video work is written by the artist and it is also her own voice that speaks to us with immense echo – deep from the bottom of the substance of the sea. What does she say? Yes, ‘it’s in me, but more than myself.’

As with many works by the artist, there is a historic reference worth mentioning. In 1972 the Lincoln Center in New York premiered the dramatic monologue play ‘Not I’ by Samuel Beckett. In a pitch-black space there was only a spotlight on the mouth of the actress.

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