SITUATION #54

Omer Fast is a master of the art of irritation, cleverly playing off what is shown against what is said by intervening subtly, at times brazenly. Subverting his narratives through manipulation and montage, their nature is questioned and their construction exposed. In Fast’s works, images and words are always under suspicion: they are never (just) what they claim to be. Continuity, then, does not meet the title’s premise by letting its narrative unfold in an uninterrupted, linear manner. Its development relies on repetition instead. Continuity tells the story of a married couple, somewhere in Germany: of a mother and a father picking up their son Daniel at the station, a soldier coming home from the war in Afghanistan. This happens not just once, however, but three times, while every scenario plays out with yet another version of Daniel. Every repetition splits, shifts and irritates the viewer’s perception anew, increasingly driving the narrative into the uncanny and the surreal, up to the point where words and images fail. What remains is a family portrait both disturbed and disturbing, allowing not only for different interpretations, but creating spaces in between from which ghostly apparitions emerge. Continuity promises continuation, but no resolution – neither for the married couple, nor for the viewer.

More by Omer Fast: gbagency.fr/en/42/Omer-Fast/