KAY WALKOWIAK

Set in the dark vastness of a dystopian Tokyo, a young woman shares her daily life with a rather strange object: a white square. For her, it seems perfectly normal to carry it along as she walks through the city or to have it sitting close to her while being mesmerised by the geometric patterns of brutalist architecture that echo basic forms a thousand times. She never seems to question the object or to be made uncomfortable by its mere presence. On the contrary, she appears to be embracing it, caressing it softly or keeping it close to her while asleep.

Like in Walkowiaks work Island (2016) -where final determination or conclusive understanding of what the form in itself is or what it stands for is never resolved - in Ocean, the form is a given reality beyond any applied meaning. The white square creates an atmosphere of conscious presence, opening up space and time.

Ocean is the second and concluding part of a diptych formed with Island. Both films are both complementary and opposing elements, since Asian philosophy conceives no existence without its exact opposite: the day determines the night, as well as the emergence, the passing away of all things.

The island is the ocean. The ocean is the island.



Concept / Directed / Edited: Kay Walkowiak
Actress: Barbara Probst
Camera / Postproduction: Brett Novak
Production Assistants: Neda Firfova, Taichiro Takamatsu
Supported by: Forum Stadtpark, Federal Chancellery of Austria, City of Salzburg, City of Vienna