What is everybody looking at?
Come closer and take a look, you have to see this...
Artists Chaja Hertog and Nir Nadler created this installation at the Central Station in The Hague where passersby heard a quiet intimate conversation and found a tiny couple embraced in their bed... within a tiny matchbox on the floor.
Think how absolutely thrilling it must have been to discover a miniature couple in a matchbox on your daily commute. You can see how enthralled and engaged everyone is, and also how respectful they are of the matchbox itself.
Magic, don't you think?
Certainly one of the most exciting, moving and ingenious installations I've seen in a long time, and it's been a major source of inspiration for the next project I'm working on. Check out their other work, I really think these guys have a lot to say, and they say it well. I'll leave you with one bonus video, exploring bodies in motion:
wooow! O.o
ReplyDeleteso amazing!
Glad you enjoyed it as much as I did!
Deletewow! thanks for helping us discover these works.
ReplyDeleteMy pleasure!
DeleteThat is amazing. I was amazed at the lifelikeness of the couple in the bed and was wondering what wonderful artist could have conjured up something so delicate and then I read the info behind the art piece and it was all created by camera obscura. It feels a little uncomfortable for me as it is like peeping on something very itimate between a couple who have been together forever. But I love the unconscious smiles on the peoples faces as they are looking in to the matchboxes. You have to respect something so touching.
ReplyDeleteI'm fascinated by the fact that the couple under the platform made you uncomfortable. I think it just goes to show how successful they were at creating something so intimate in this public space. I actually love that they were actually under there, reacting in real-time to what was going on above them ("elephant footsteps", I just love that moment!), for me it made it all that much more thrilling of an installation. But I'm glad that you found it touching despite the discomfort it caused you. Thanks for your honest reaction!
DeleteI think it's just that the couple are a little bit older so you get the sense there is a real relationship that has lasted years and this is the comfort of two people who know each other inside and out and that they still feel enough about each other to be wrapped around each other. I can only liken it to intruding on someone elses shared private moments. I was brought up in quite a non tactile environment so displays of affection and intimacy hit me a little more - it doesn't make me any more demonstrative - it just makes me more aware of my own shortcomings - but I never skimp on my little boys.
DeleteI totally agree with you about the tender intimacy between the two of them. Amazing how beautifully they've captured that. Then I guess what effect that has on the viewer will depend on what each of us brings to it. And if you're heaping affection on your little ones it doesn't sound like it's shortcomings at all, just differences.
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