Saskia Olde Wolbers
(Netherlands, England 1971– )
- Title
- Placebo
- Year
- 2002
- Media categories
- Time-based media, Video
- Materials used
- SD PAL DV video, 4:3 ratio, colour, stereo sound, 6 min loop
- Edition
- AP II
- Dimensions
- Signature & date
- Signed on DVD master, black felt tip pen "Saskia Olde Wolbers". Not dated. Signed Certificate of authenticity, black pen "Saskia Olde Wolbers". Not dated.
- Credit
- John Kaldor Family Collection at the Art Gallery of New South Wales
- Accession number
- L2010.152
- Copyright
- © Saskia Olde Wolbers. Courtesy Maureen Paley, London
- Location
- Contemporary galleries
- Further information
Placebo is a fictional story based on the syndrome Pseudoligica Phantastica, where invented experiences are presented as reality.
The video is set within the intensive care unit of a hospital with the off-screen narrative told by the mistress of a supposedly married man who claims he is a surgeon. Regaining consciousness after a car crash that her now comatose lover orchestrated, she begins to unravel his intricate web of deceit.
Images of empty hospital interiors, a drip, effervescent pills and various molecular structures, melt away into liquid globules. Placebo is filmed in real time in miniature sets covered in paint and submerged in water.
A soundtrack of electronic samples plays in tune with the melting droplets.
From: http://www.saskiaoldewolbers.com/works/placebo-video-stills-synopsis/Voice over: Sukie Smith
- Bibliography (2)
-
Wayne Tunnicliffe (New Zealand; Australia) (Editor), John Kaldor Family Collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2011, 296, 297-98 (colour illus.).
Stijn Huijts (Author), Gianni Jetzer, Patricia Ellis, Saskia Olde Wolbers: now that part of me has become fiction, 2003, (colour illus.).
