Gestures

A woman moves through a room; she begins to describe its qualities and the possibilities it offers in sign language: what it is made of, what it contains, its dimensions and what she does there. This room, which she is apparently quite familiar with, belongs to the neighborhood’s charitable organization and at the same time represents her own commitment to gain broad acceptance for sign language.
Flora Watzal’´s camera follows the woman’s gestures, but what we see has been extensively manipulated; the images seem to have been removed from the familiar spatial coordinates, set into independent motion and zoomed until they are extremely close to the screen’s surface. In Gestures, each videographic image created by Flora Watzal has been enlarged to such an extent that the protagonist’s hands define the frame’s borders. These alterations of the material´’s microstructure re-center the image and minimize both the camera’´s movements and visual references which could be used to judge spatial relationships. The room spreads out like a nearly static plane, a pure electronic surface, icon or idea for an image, while sign language’s code system, the choreography and the speed of the protagonist´s’ hands produce a constant alternation in the image’s axes: This in turn provides a basis for the viewer’´s artificial experience of three-dimensionality.
Gestures does not deal with sign language or its status in society; on the contrary, Flora Watzal cooperates with an unfamiliar linguistic system out of a personal interest in the narrative parameters of two-dimensional images. This system becomes the focus, giving the room an independent mode of expression. (Rike Frank)