GOLDSMITHS | MFA 2020

Esther Gatón



Machine white sun
-And how does one see something that does not itself have a fixed form? Something that is in many places at once, in each instance on its own terms? Condensation on a transparent surface is one manifestation of water, yet condensation on the window of a crowded night bus is not the same as condensation on the doors of a public sauna. There is only the some total of the thing in all of its instances as it happens, which does not equal the thing itself. If we obeserve for long and intently enough it becomes a necessity to be comfortable in not knowing. It is okay to keep in mind, the brown flood waters being sweeped out with a cheap plastic broom from inside a river side cafe in a mid-sized European town. It is okay to keep this in mind when thinking of something else, because there is no pure image of water. That is simply water in a photography studio placed on a support inside a transparent container with a white backdrop and optimum lighting conditions. There is no way to account for the grafitti on the underpass of a bridge, no way to turn it into a grand declaration. It is simply there, inscribed in a place where not many people pass often but some people pass occasionally nontheless. In such places, with condensation, amongst ripples, between tides, on dry summers and humid evenings, that truth simply passes as life. It passes through pipes or as decoration. There are only occasions of water, and all there is is circumstance.- Excerpt from a text written for this film by Rita Aktay (Goldsmiths MFA Curating, 2020)
Video, 2020

Machine white sun
-And how does one see something that does not itself have a fixed form? Something that is in many places at once, in each instance on its own terms? Condensation on a transparent surface is one manifestation of water, yet condensation on the window of a crowded night bus is not the same as condensation on the doors of a public sauna. There is only the some total of the thing in all of its instances as it happens, which does not equal the thing itself. If we obeserve for long and intently enough it becomes a necessity to be comfortable in not knowing. It is okay to keep in mind, the brown flood waters being sweeped out with a cheap plastic broom from inside a river side cafe in a mid-sized European town. It is okay to keep this in mind when thinking of something else, because there is no pure image of water. That is simply water in a photography studio placed on a support inside a transparent container with a white backdrop and optimum lighting conditions. There is no way to account for the grafitti on the underpass of a bridge, no way to turn it into a grand declaration. It is simply there, inscribed in a place where not many people pass often but some people pass occasionally nontheless. In such places, with condensation, amongst ripples, between tides, on dry summers and humid evenings, that truth simply passes as life. It passes through pipes or as decoration. There are only occasions of water, and all there is is circumstance.- Excerpt from a text written for this film by Rita Aktay (Goldsmiths MFA Curating, 2020)
Video, 2020