Barbara Campbell

The Machine, oiled again

The Machine, oiled again
The Machine, oiled again

Above an illuminated sewing machine the naked, oiled body of a woman lies motionless on a table, her rear view facing the audience. The texture of her body is partly obliterated by the black-and-white abstract patterns continuously projected onto it, moving with mechanical mindlessness...

Forward to one side a simple square screen displays a sequence of old-fashioned black-and-white slides. The projector, clearly in view, clicks with automatic regularity onto the next unidentifiable image. Its progress, however, is not determined by a computer, but by the remote control in the hand of that still, outstretched body...

(from the essay by Joan Kerr in Flesh Winnow)