Blossom

2006

Blossom

Blossom (fragment 0:48)
2006

video installation
2 projections
dimensions variable
7:00, sound

The video installation Blossom consists of two screens next to each other. On one screen one sees photographs of dead Iranian young men (martyrs from the 1980-1988 Iraq-Iran war) – shown in a small glass case, a symbolic bridal room. In these memorial cases, relatives have placed memorabilia and flowers as well as transparent curtains.
The other screen shows recordings of the lively textile markets in Iran. The market's merchants are always men. The women who shop the colorful textiles are most of the time entirely dressed in black.
From the noises of the market slowly rises the reverberation of a procession passing through.

The art critic Janneke Wesseling writes about Blossom “Hurkmans strives to express the unspeakable. Of all that cannot be expressed in words or be comprehended, this is most true of death. Hurkmans’ art works represent loss, emptiness, the absence of a loved one...
In Blossom, Hurkmans creates a fascinating reversal of things. The living talk, gesticulate and negotiate, but we never actually get to see them. However, we do see the dead ones, they even look straight at us. Death is present, while life is absent.”