© Effie Wu

11th Art Division Encouragement Prize

Super Smile

Video work [Germany]

Effie WU

Outline

The artist herself guides her room with her smile fixed on the camera. The viewer ends up facing the artist who keeps smiling and does not blink, and they become unable to take their eyes off the image. A visual work which questions the relationship between the camera and filmed person.

Reason for Award

My eyes were glued to the screen. Before her smile, staring at us with her eyes unblinking for about five full minutes, the only thing that a viewer can do is just stand transfixed as if their soul were dehydrated.
Is it a very well-trained performance? Or, is it a digital composition technique?
However, rather than mulling over such a matter, I would like to focus on several concepts which this work involves. The artist herself gives the performance in this image and a weird atmosphere is created which makes the viewer feel disturbed. The reason why we feel like that is that she deliberately points out the view of people towards Asians in Europe; being a woman,communication problems, and other things, like a knife at viewers as an arm of the presentation. This work can be called an alarming work which induces deep reflection.