Stay behind the line
Reynir Hutber
In Stay Behind the Line, viewers are confronted with an empty room they cannot access. This cell-like room is filmed in real time by a surveillance camera. But on the screen, a naked, huddled-up up body seems to fill the space and the viewer can interact with it.
Do they assault it? Do they console it?
Here social visibility, responsibility and human rights are questioned.
Born in 1981, Reynir Hutber lives and works in London.
The work of this multidisciplinary artist, producer and musician lies at the crossroads between installation, live art, sculpture and new technology. He graduated with honours in 2003 from the University of Westminster (Mixed Media Fine Art), and spent a year in the Camden Film and Video Workshop in London in 2006 before obtaining his Masters in Fine Arts from the University of Brighton in 2009.
In 2010 Reynir Hutber won the prestigious Catlin Art Prize for his Stay Behind the Line installation, which was also exhibited in 2011 at the Fierce Festival in Birmingham.
STAY BEHIND THE LINE
Installation, England, 2010
Stay Behind the Line is an interactive installation set in a rectangular cell fenced off by a taut wire: one part is accessible, the other is not. When visitors enter this space through the narrow corridor, they are confronted with a surveillance camera screen, which is recording the cell floor in real time. While the inaccessible part of the room is empty, on the screen visitors can see a naked body lying on the ground. It is hard to determine the age, sex or physical condition of this body. Visitors can interact with the body in any way they like. Some cover it with a coat to warm it up, others try to feed it. But the most primitive instincts can also surface when people are faced with the vulnerability of this naked body.
Furthermore, on the entrance door there is a sign saying “Photography prohibited” - a common sign in art galleries, military bases and detention centres. This installation questions us about social visibility and our responsibility when faced with the images of suffering we regularly see in the new media.
Here the traditional role of spectator is disturbingly altered: our reactions become the performance and subject of the work.
REYNIR HUTBER
Born in 1981, Reynir Hutber lives and works in London.
The work of this multidisciplinary artist, producer and musician lies at the crossroads between installation, live art, sculpture and new technology. He graduated with honours in 2003 from the University of Westminster (Mixed Media Fine Art), and spent a year in the Camden Film and Video Workshop in London in 2006 before obtaining his Masters in Fine Arts from the University of Brighton in 2009.
In 2010 Reynir Hutber won the prestigious Catlin Art Prize for his Stay Behind the Line installation, which was also exhibited in 2011 at the Fierce Festival in Birmingham.
