Katrin Mayer & Eske Schlüters, time to sync or swim

Exhibition

Artists:

Katrin Mayer and Eske Schlüters

When acoustic and visual spaces no longer connect in the usual ways, i.e. when we are met by noises for which the appropriate visuals are lacking, or find ourselves holding materials that put our senses to the test, then the ensuing alienation may trigger flashes of sentiment and palpably confront us with the un-familiar as well as with potential new orders of things. time to sync or swim, an audio-visual installation by Katrin Mayer and Eske Schlüters, does so in a very particular way. The duo’s collaboration references Virginia Woolf’s novel Orlando (1928)—the heroine of which experiences more than one gender while traveling through four centuries. The installation weaves a web of digitally constructed identities by referring to the so-called otherkin community at Tumblr, whose members identify with animals, plants, and other non-human species in an endeavor to foster the most broadly nuanced possible spectrum of sexual orientations.