Das Ding
2010, 3:39
The thing in itself (das ding an sich) is an object independent of the senses. It is a thing without a viewer, it is imperceivable. This video mimics the famous pottery scene from the movie Ghost when Patrick Swayze (who is a ghost for most of the movie) flirtatiously helps Demi Moore as she throws clay into a vase while the song Unchained Melody plays in the background. The movie really attempts to assert the presence of absence. Swayze's character is gone and yet he is not and the vase itself is an object illustrating this paradox. Its walls are carved out only to create a negative space, an absence in which to put something. It’s shape may be phallic, but it will always posses its yonic counterpart and since the object in Das Ding appears to be a glass-like material both of its genders can be seen at the same time. The shape of the vase develops over time without a visible hand forming it which implies that some ghost-like force is at work.