Hear This, 2012
Single-channel digital video, colour, sound
8mins 5 seconds.
Lauren Brincat’s video Hear This depicts the artist alone in her studio during a residency in Berlin, speaking on a telephone to her mother back in Australia. The telephone is made from watermelon wedges that the artist slices and consumes as she speaks, literally eating her own words in a forlorn yet comical representation of homesickness. As the video progresses the watermelon soaks Brincat’s clothes and dirties her hair and face, creating a disquieting and awkward performance.
Sound plays a significant role in Hear This, as in many of the artist’s works. The soundtrack acts as an emotive device, drawing on both personal and cultural recollections. Unassuming noises such as the cutting of a slice of melon, or a seed falling onto the wooden floor, take on greater importance in the video, emphasising both the solitude of the figure and the intimacy of the performance.