Story telling is a powerful engine for human expression.[1]

Artist Eva Koch is exhibiting Headwind at SCA and is the perfect example of art and the narrative. Headwind is an installation consisting of two screens that are facing each other. Both are short films that a continuously repeated. They are telling the story of Augusta, a woman standing on an isolated landscape in Denmark. Who is watching and waiting for her family who she left behind in Greenland, to appear in the distance. One screen is of Augusta and the other screen is of her siblings and their families journeying towards her from Greenland. Koch has left this open ended and ambiguous allowing the audience to interpret it in many ways.[2]For me Koch’s story is about life journeying onwards and life coming to an end. I can feel Augusta’s fear of death and urgency, the young families hope and energy. If any of you decide to go and see this exhibition which is easy to see and not to mention free, then I recommend you pick up the artist’s notes on this haunting and personal story telling which we all can relate to.

I also wanted to mention that after reading the chapter for this week, it brought back memories of 2007. When I was fortunate enough to see Sophie Calle’s Take Care of Yourself at the Venice Biennale. If any of you aren’t familiar with this installation then you should read up on it. It was fascinating and one of the best pieces on display. The general idea of the work was an email Calle had received from her boyfriend, leaving her. His last line was Take Care of Yourself. The installations include a hundred women who read the email individually with their own interpretations. This artwork is a strong narrative and clever, because it affects most of us. We think about our own stories of love, when we have hurt others or been hurt. We reflect on our decisions and hopefully become a better and kinder person because of it.

1. Eleanor Heartney, Art and Today. (London: Phaidon Press Limited, 2008), 122.

2. Eleanor Heartney, Art and Today. (London: Phaidon Press Limited, 2008), 127.