A 4 Monitor video installation
3 monitors displaying English subtitles, one extra with surveillance camera
Super 8 film edited on lo-band Umatic video, 7 minutes 9 seconds, repeated 8 times for a 1‑hour auto rewind tape
This video installation was made at Sheffield Hallam University during the Colin Walker Fellowship in Fine Art, a year’s teaching residency, (GB)
A documentation of Play in Camera (trailer 2:40 minutes) was made with material filmed by Nick Stewart at the Colin Walker Fellowship exhibition, Sheffield Hallam University 1992, edited on DVD by Rainer Nelissen 2009
A single screen DVD with German subtitles and trailer of 10 minutes was produced in 2009, edited by Mirco Sanftleben (Pixel 2 Motion) (D). The spectators are also filmed during the presentation; the material is screened live next to the DVD images.
The Senses – a collection of works:
The Senses: Play in Camera (sense of sight)
The Senses: Play it by Ear & An Ear for You (sense of sound)
The Senses: Ô d’Oriane (sense of smell)
The Senses: Zucchini (sense of taste)
The Senses: Intimacy (sense of touch)
Play in Camera presents the spectator with repeated and repetitive video images of three protagonists on three separate screens. There is no soundtrack but English subtitles appear under the video portraits. The texts are taken from two plays, alternately: ‘In Camera’ by Jean-Paul Sartre 1944 and ‘Play’ by Samuel Beckett 1962 – 63. On the fourth screen the viewer is seen captured live, by surveillance camera. The video installation is about reflection and self-reflection. In both the cited pieces the characters are trapped in an after-life struggle coming to terms with themselves. Their lives have all ended badly because of selfish behaviour. In a halfway house between life and death, three characters in two different plays, are condemned for eternity, to relive the most troubled moments of their personal relationships.
Tanya Ury
“Man: I know now, that all that was just…play. And all this? When will all this-”
Inez to Garcin:
“One always dies too soon — or too late. And yet. One’s whole life is complete at that moment, with a line drawn neatly under it ready for summing up. You are your life, and nothing else.”
Extract from Play in Camera
Presentation
1992 Colin Walker Fellowship exhibition, Department of Fine Art, Sheffield Hallam University (GB)
2009 (10) The Senses, on the occasion of the Intercultural Days: single screen video screening with live element, Arkadas Theater, Bühnen der Kulturen (Stages of Diverse Cultures) Cologne (D)
2009 (1.11) Single screen DVD with German subtitles & live camera, The Senses, a multimedia solo event during the Intercultural Days, 8 pm Arkadas Theater — Bühne der Kulturen (Stages of Diverse Cultures) Cologne (D)
www.interkulturelle-woche-koeln.de
Information
Concept, camera, edit: Tanya Ury
Text extracts from ‘Play’ 1962 – 3, Samuel Beckett,
Collected Shorter Plays of Samuel Beckett, Faber and Faber 1984, (GB)
Text extracts from ‘Huis Clos (In Camera) 1944, Jean-Paul Sartre,
In Camera and Other Plays Jean-Paul Sartre, Penguin (GB) 1989
German subtitles:
Text extracts from “Spiel“, 1962 – 3 from “Theaterstücke” (theatre pieces) by Samuel Beckett, German edition 1995, publishers: Suhrkamp Taschenbuch ISBN 3−518−38901 7, and from “Huis Clos“, 1944, by Jean-Paul Sartre from „Geschlossene Gesellschaft“, Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag (publishers), 46th edition 2008, ISBN 978 3 499 15769 1)
Actors:
Screen 1: Inez Serrano, W1 (woman 1), Natasha Morgan
Screen 2: Joseph Garcin, M (man), Marc Chaimovicz
Screen 3: Estelle Rigault, W2 (woman 2), Sophie Dix
Screen 4: Valet Erskine, butler, Live spectator
Publications & Press
Artist’s Writings & Publications
2009 (1.11) The Senses on the Arkadas Theatre, Bühne der Kulturen (Stages of Diverse Cultures) website Cologne (D) www.buehnederkulturen.de