Speedflesh

The interactive video installation Speedflesh is a satire on the consumer society and an investigation into the boundaries between the organic and the mechanical. In a humorous way, Barry has five cyborg characters perform, each with their own problems. Bladder, half man, half jellyfish, has quite a few lives behind him and has already been in several worlds. Kinetic is a woman who is trapped in a girl's body. She is a time traveller but things usually go wrong when she does. The body of Prosthetic has been tinkered with a lot and it only gets in his way. Heads has four pairs of brains and lastly the swimmer Floater has a tendency to swallow others when she wants to talk to them. These five affected, neurotic beings live in a world that is approaching its end. Their conversations and disturbed observations become audible and visible when the visitor wanders through the spacial installation. The movements of the visitor determine whose story is heard and through whose eyes one looks. The result is a dream-like world that is reminiscent of the paintings of Salvador Dalí. Judith Barry (1954), originally an architect, has been involved with performance art and installations since the late seventies and has since then devised numerous projects that have been seen all over the world.