A merry-go-round in the artificial light of midnight - moving slowly at first - getting faster and faster soon - gathering speed and for a few minutes forming a spiral of speed and time - reaching a dizzy height - for happiness and eternity - forever - without being able to sustain it forever - but with the need to retard its motion - to approach slowness - calmness - reaching earth again - and without having come to a halt yet meeting the next passengers eagerly crowding on the platform to go for a round of merriness too.

Overlapping sequences and a differing rhythm of pace turn the happening into visible memory. The energy of artificial light and the subjective perception of time create a sensual experience and the consciousness of time having an essential impact on human life.

The visualization of time perception as a very subjective element of human consciousness is the central theme of all of Gudrun Kemsa's video pieces. In physics it is the moment / the now / a point without expansion / an untouchable abstractum that can imply a positive or negative value on the mathematical axis of time.

With simple mathematical equations the position of a moving object can be calculated for any moment of time in the future and in the past. Mankind though creates its own time through individual perception, associating duration and direction with time. For a human being, the consciously experienced moment does not represent some sort of tiny spot on the time axis but always contains expansion.

Time needs duration in the sense of continuity. In a hectical world of fast impressions Gudrun Kemsa opposes acceleration and with her video pieces tries to give a sensual feeling of time as a proceeding element of developing continuation.

y.o.p. 2001
original text by the artist

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