Touching the walls with both hands simultaneously, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0uNnmAudmk&NR=1

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After a period of being confined to her bed due to a lung condition Rebecca Horne’s work is about isolation, covering the body as well as extending the body to reach out to other objects and surroundings.

The finger gloves that feature in Touching The Walls With Both Hands Simultaneously are constructed so that they specifically fit the room that she is performing in. By extending her fingers it is as if she is touching the walls herself, being able to see the extensions touching the walls creates a kind of sensitivity feedback, a loop of extension – wall – spectating – feeling and back to extension.

Another piece that involves the illusion of feeling and one’s hand is ‘Feather Fingers.’ (1972). A feather is attached to each finger with a metal ring. The hand becomes “as symmetrical (and as sensitive) as a bird’s wing”. When touching the opposite arm with these feather fingers one can feel the touch on the left arm and of the fingers on the right hand moving as if to touch the left arm but it is instead the feathers which make contact. Rebecca Horn describes the effect: “it is as if one hand had suddenly become disconnected from the other like two utterly unrelated beings. My sense of touch becomes so disrupted that the different behavior of each hand triggers contradictory sensations.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebecca_Horn

In White Body Fan 1972 she extends her body with a 3 meter wide metal and fabric construction. In some instances it looks like a cocoon and others like a huge butterfly. I’m interested by this shift between hiding and reaching out.

She simultaneously hides and shows herself.