drawhearts

A device that eternally repeats the act of steaming up a pane of glass with a fog machine and line drawing a heart with an electric arm. The heart slowly fades away, but the machine moves up and down, steaming up the glass and mechanically repeating the process of drawing a heart. To emphasize the emotionless character of the machine, the work is mainly composed of transparent plastic parts, thus exposing its structure and system. By creating a machine that merely draws the symbol of a human heart, the work asks viewers, through its structure, questions such as “What is the difference between human and non-human?” and “How do we determine what is human?”

Drawhearts simulates and, without tiring, repeats a very familiar, very personal, and very physical action: a breath condenses on glass, creating a temporary surface for writing. Just before the breath fades away, an essential message is drawn: a heart, or a message of love, meant only for the eyes of the person intended, a person very close to you. Drawhearts takes this intimate action, breaks it down into its essential steps, and then builds it up again, repeating the gesture endlessly. But what does this endless repetition mean? Has love been found? Has the perfect moment been captured and repeated here as a reenacted memory? Or is it an attempt to communicate, an attempt by a non-human to look for love and sympathy? (Georg TREMMEL)