Moritz Uebele

As though viewed through a kaleidoscope, a noisy image emerges from a sea of dark-bright contrasts, color and reflections, initially appearing inexplicable and mystical. At first, all of the visuals and sounds seem surreal and abstract. In anticipation of something more concrete, the viewer waits for the grainy image to come into sharper focus. The indeterminate, opaque images are alternated with macro shots which show a spider in its natural environment. After a while, you begin to get the impression you are seeing the environment from the perspective of a spider. In parallel with the images, four words gradually emerge from the distorted soundtrack, which are rendered increasingly alien in the course of the cycle of transformations, before finally vanishing once more into a digital ocean of sound. The psychedelic, Delphic sounds initially seem to come from a far-off planet, though after a while, they begin to sound rhythmic and structured. Sound and image supplement one another, giving rise to a nebulous, threatening atmosphere which comes to a head as the figure of a human body, lying motionless on the forest ground, comes into view.

While the viewer is still trying to make sense of what they have seen, digital, pixelated surfaces begin to appear almost unnoticeably over the images, gradually making parts of the image unrecognizable. Moritz Uebele’s work plays with the now outdated and marginal technology of Super-8 film. The digital processing of the footage, which becomes apparent through the pixelation, serves both to enshroud the image motifs, and to make fragments of the image ›invisible‹ (like an invisibility cloak). On the other hand, it makes the medium itself as well as the technology behind it ›visible‹. (Joana da Silva Düring)