Screen test

Daniel von Sturmer… uses video, sculpture and installation in combination to explore spatial relationships. … 'Screen Test' 2004, comprises four different sized screens positioned on the floor at different angles. Each screen or object is situated in specific relation to the gallery space and emphasizes the viewing experience – this dynamic was an aspect of minimalism, and suggests some of the art-historical ideas informing von Sturmer’s practice. In each projected image objects come to life, seemingly of their own accord: a balloon inflates and deflates; a light turns on and off; paper streamers unravel; and a sponge falls from one screen to another.

In contrast to the blacked out-environment of most video installations, von Sturmer’s work is presented in gallery light, and with projectors on view. His furtive activities consider perceptual quandaries of space and time: the weightless pictorial space within the video, the real space within each screen and the larger space of the gallery. And so when a sponge falls from one frame to the next without a hand in sight, we wonder how it defies the laws of gravity. These are theoretical questions played out by the most humble of means. If events are inextricably linked, then the playful visual conundrums von Sturmer describes wander through both real and virtual dimensions.

Natasha Bullock, ‘Times of our lives’, Anne Landa Award for video and new media arts, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2006, p.8