"Flickering images- manipulation and the search for identity in Jeannette Ehlers' work"

EXTRACT FROM:

FLICKERING IMAGES
MANIPULATION AND THE SEARCH FOR IDENTITY IN JEANNETTE EHLERS’ WORK

BY AUKJE LEPOUTRE RAVN 2009

Among other things Ehlers is concerned with creating computer manipulated video works on the basis of existing video and film material – so-called found footage. The principle behind her approach consists of taking single scenes from classic films or popular TV-shows and deconstructing the narrative contents of the scenes in question by, for instance, leaving out or adding a character. With the meticulous precision of a surgeon Ehlers works her way through the selected material frame by frame. The technique demands extreme patience, for each second consists of about 25 frames and each frame has to be treated individually. If just one frame is skipped, the manipulation becomes too evident and the desired ”vanishing act” is rendered impossible. Jeannette Ehlers is especially interested in the removal or manipulation of the human body.
Jeannette Ehlers is educated from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts 2006. She lives and works in Copenhagen.