Raphaela Vogel

Tränenmeer is a mesmerizing self-portrait from a bird’s-eye perspective. Shot with a drone, it shows the artist in the midst of a spiralling maritime landscape as she stands atop a rock, barefoot, in a long pink dress and gently cradles a yellow accordion in her arms. Due to the image's constant vortex-like movement, the viewer is virtually hypnotized to the point of vertigo.

The video’s sound collage alternates abruptly from fragments conveying a loss of control to others imbued with self-empowerment: schlager singer Milva’s Ich hab keine Angst (1981) is combined with brief excerpts from Vogel’s own video works, including an improvised piano solo by the artist, the ticking of a biological clock and the alarming sound of a baby screaming.

It is as if an omniscient female narrator orchestrates, all at one time, the soundtrack, the drone's flight and the currents of the sea. The video screen is framed by eight metallic and partially hairy tentacles with collected objects entangled in them. Reminiscent of a spider, the tube structure draws the viewer into the video’s unsettling psychological land art universe.