His ‘n’ Hers

His ‘n’ Hers is a dual screen video installation accompanied by stereo sound. This piece was first presented at the Kwick Love Summer Show which was curated by Leo Cohen for the Hackney Wicked Art Festival 2011.

His ‘n’ Hers features two protagonists who describe their subjective experience of disillusionment and disaffection. The man likens his experience to the act of looking after an egg, which is symbolic of an uncertain future; whereas the woman explores the allegory of travelling in a car without a certain destination.

The car and the egg seem like absurd, comic, and even glib metaphors; but both share a hidden core of meaning that seeks to understand the method by which we lose our love.

After separation, the two protagonists find themselves in the emotional paradox of being connected in the same psychological process of disconnection.

His ‘n’ Hers asks: is it better to learn nothing, even if we risk learning nothing about ourselves; and is it always more convenient to forget quickly, if only to make the same mistakes again?

When this piece was presented at the Forman’s Smokehouse Gallery for the Trickster show, I made a slight variation in terms of installation. The video was projected and the audio came from two stereo speakers.

I personally thought that this set-up was more successful as it allowed the two voice-overs to become acoustic entities that inhabited the space. This gave the work a spectral dimension that fitted in with the themes of transience and futility inherent to the text.

I have made both sequences available for viewing. The video is 7 minutes long, synced and looped. Audio should be heard on headphones.