Flying
1983, 4 minutes
Auder uses airplane flight to explore the relationship between the
imaginary, the symbolic and the real. The piece consists of imagery
appropriated from television and footage Auder recorded firsthand. The
boundary between his sources, however, is hopelessly blurred through
the use of re-recorded imagery that is rapidly interspersed throughout
the piece.
It is not a question of fact versus fiction (the real versus the imaginary)
but the extent to which our experiences are mediated through degrees
of fantasy in a more general sense. Footage of a young boy is poignantly
contrasted with that of a young male pilot seated in the cockpit of
a small aircraft. Through the aid of a toy plane, the boy enacts maneuvers
the pilot will likely undergo in reality.
This pairing is then disrupted by images of flight taken from television.
The result is a rapidly alternating discourse between childhood fantasy,
adulthood reality out of which emerges a more real uncertainty.
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