Dana Sederowsky works with video performance and photography.
As an artist she works solely with herself and her own body.
It is her determined choice to be autonomous and solitary.
Dana Sederowsky who comes from a photographic background, uses in the videoworks her knowledge and experience from photography to create "speaking photographs", using the videocamera as if it was a stillcamera with sound.
Dana Sederowsky has been concentrating on two ongoing projects:
Special Announcements , started in 2006 and Dana Aid , started in 1998.
Special Announcements is about building a cult.
The idea is to create trust between the character and the viewer.
We meet a messenger, a bust with closed eyes and her face showing no emotions, who asks for attention and thoughtfullness about life itself.
She is a communicator, ready to listen and invites dialogue with the viewer. Focus is on the process of using speech and how words are delivered. The matter of language is thoroughly investigated and the performance is strictly directed.
In the project Dana Aid we have been able to follow a nurse (who calls herself the Doctor), a stylized character that has nothing to do with healthcare, but nonetheless in her capacity as a (self-advertised) doctor has gained authority and trust, and is in a position to use this advantage. The figure has been constructed by Dana Sederowsky for over a decade, according to specific dramaturgical rules.
The Doctor is the socially extrovert character, a moral guardian in contact with the social condition in general, while the character in Special Announcements is the esoteric, introvert character, in contact with the soul. Sederowsky sees these persona as parts of the same body.
These projects revolve around Sederowsky´s current questioning of authorities and autocratic ways: the identification of proclaimers of truths and their (non-)reliability as proclaimers of truth. Questioning the fundaments for rational "truth" is Sederowsky´s evergoing mission . She challenges both the way in which the producer presents her/himself in relation to the recipient, as well as the role of language and the performance of language communication via media.
She questions why we refrain from taking responsibility.
The videos are all produced in one take, with no cuts.
Sederowsky is the writer of the texts, the actor performing them and the director of the camera.
Sederowsky has had several soloexhibitions and exhibited internationally, including:
National Centre for Contemporary Art, Moscow and Ekaterinburg Russia
International Centre for Photography Sydney Australia
NIMAC, centre for contemporary art Nicosia Cyprus
Los Angeles International Art Biennial U.S.A
Gothenburg Museum of Art Stenasalen Sweden
Villa San Michele Capri Italy
