Exploring possible forms to express this uneasy relationship between different pasts I became interested in the power of the Hitler moustache as symbol for this period. 

 

In an attempt to explore these concepts of organic connection and legitimacy I developed a video piece involving a slug that is initially positioned as a moustache. During the course of the video the slug moves from its position, explores the contours of my face and finally escapes to my hair. Although at first the moustache reference may be clear, through the passage of time and the transit of the slug, the references become more ambiguous.

 

THE NAKED SNAIL

 

Having studied History before studying Visual Art I find the issue of a ‘legitimate’ history a compelling one. Spending 2006 studying in Weimar I was struck by the way in which one history was presented as more ‘right’ than another. Whilst Goethe and Schiller are seen as historical figures which are truly representative of German culture, the Third Reich is seen as some kind of aberration, a period which has no organic connection to the corpus of German history. 

 

This led me to the idea of prosthesis as a metaphor. In many ways it seems that the Nazi period is treated as an extension on top of the German ‘body’, that there is no organic connection between this and the rest of German history. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TITLE: THE NAKED SNAIL MEDIUM: VIDEO, STANDARD DEFINITION (07:57) CONTEXT: BAUHAUS UNI MFA (ELECTIVE) YEAR:  2006

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