Sundial
Looped Video projection without sound, HD, 9′.
In the HD video projection Sundial, Sander Foederer blends documentary and artifice to disrupt the flow of urban life and offer a new vision of the everyday. The modern metropolis becomes a stage for the sublime potential of natural phenomena, which are one of the few ways in which people within the constructed city, remain strongly connected to nature. The title points to the intersection of time and light. In Sundial, these two fundamental ingredients of photography are manipulated in order to focus attention on the act of looking. What this creates is a series of tableau-vivants, or filmic haikus. While Sundial lures the viewer in with a cinematic language, it rejects the expectation of narrative. The viewer’s automatic search for a story and the failure to find one further focuses attention on the light and the small, fleeting details it illuminates. In essence, the work Sundial is a request. It asks us to be open and receptive to our physical environment and invites us to remove the blindfold created by habit and familiarity.