The Penguin affair.
Two channels (colour and B/W) video instalation, no sound. 2002
The Penguin Affair, explores trust/hope/faith in the future in the investigation of the relation between rationality and emotions. The installation consists of a video projection of a closed shot of a Penguin on one of the faces of a 4 x 1,5 x 1,5 meters box, covered in white fabric with two silk curtains inside and too small to allow an observer to stand. The projection can only be seen from inside the box and after crawling through the silk curtains. Outside there is a video made of two different sequences: the right sequence is the writing of the word think and the left sequence is the writing of the word feel. When the white paper becomes black due to the continuos writing the sequences are reversed till they reach white again.
"The only natives of Antarctica that spend the dark winter on the mainland are the male emperor penguins. The Females lay their eggs in April, as long night is falling, and then leave for the islands. The males tuck the big eggs between their feet and stand there incubating them for two whole months. Their trust in the future is profound. If you are reading this in May or June, think of them down there doing this. They are on the coast: behind them stretches a continent the size of Australia, completely covered in ice thousands of feet thick, and all their days are made of moonlight."
Paul Shepheard, in The Cultivated Wildnerss - or What is Landscape?
© Miguel Santos, 2008