Philipp Ebeling is a photographer and filmmaker. In his latest work sync/unsync he explores the interplay of tension and release via a performance by Jazz vocalist Maggie Nichols in an attempt to understand the consequences of traumatic memory on our bodies. ‘ I want to understand how Traumas are stored in our bodies and how they shape us and become part of the fabric of ourselves. I want to explore the different ways we attempt to overcome Trauma and realign our minds with our bodies, to get in sync with ourselves.’ The video and sound installation is a collaboration with sound artists Nimzo Studio.
@philippebelingphoto
@philippebelingphoto
Sync/Unsync (2022)
Two channel video installation with stereo audio on headphones and ambient sound on speakers. Duration: 8 min 37sec.
Colour photographs 60x 33cm, reproductions of the book ‘Closer’ by Philipp Ebeling, redecorated by Thea and Lorelei.
Our daughter Thea suffered a severe birth injury that left her with a strong physical impairment at the beginning of her life. We suspect her volatile character that has her fly into extreme burst of anger at times without any warning has at least to some extend been affected by these early traumatic experiences. Having spent many years with physical therapy for her I became interested in trying to understand how Trauma affect our bodies, how it is stored, how processed and how and why some traumatic events stick around and hold us back while others help us to grow.
Sync/Unsync is a two channel video installation that takes my interest in trauma processing and looks at different strategies for letting of steam, different methods to stay sane and attempts to be in sync with people around us. Three very different sets of people express their ways of finding release in front of the camera. Whether that is vocal improv, laughter Yoga or boxing. My participants have all told me how their practices help them touch something deep inside them, help them stay in balance with themselves and deal with their anxieties. They all use their bodies and voices to give shape to memories that are essential non-verbal, things like anger issues, anxieties, general life frustrations or deep sitting traumas they are not ready to talk about. A voice can both be jarring, as in a scream or soothing and connecting as with a song or laughter. A boxer needs to learn to read their opponents bodies and be fully comfortable within their own in order to fight well.
Dutch American Psychologist Bessel Van der Kolk writes in his book The Body Keeps the Score about how traumatic stress throws us out of sync with ourselves and others by preventing us from knowing what we know and feeling what we feel. He describes how very often the crux of healing traumatic stress lies in allowing the brain to know what the body knows and thus re-establish synchronicity within yourself. This in turn allows for meaningful connections to people around us. Being in sync as he calls it.
The two channels of the video in time mirror or contra point each other, they compliment or they jar. Jazz improv artist Maggie Nichols’ improvisation on the theme of ‘tension and release’ provides a sort of narrative for the sound track.
In addition the installation comprises four photographs from a self-published book produced a few years ago. The work of still photographs called ‘Closer’ is a collection of mostly close-up images taken at home that describe my conflicting feelings of a world simultaneously shrinking in on me and expanding onto new dimensions after becoming a father. My children set out to redecorate a few copies of the book. The results are striking and in a way they represent the beginning of my journey to find visual representations of trauma healing.
Things fall apart but can be put back together again.
Two channel video installation with stereo audio on headphones and ambient sound on speakers. Duration: 8 min 37sec.
Colour photographs 60x 33cm, reproductions of the book ‘Closer’ by Philipp Ebeling, redecorated by Thea and Lorelei.
Our daughter Thea suffered a severe birth injury that left her with a strong physical impairment at the beginning of her life. We suspect her volatile character that has her fly into extreme burst of anger at times without any warning has at least to some extend been affected by these early traumatic experiences. Having spent many years with physical therapy for her I became interested in trying to understand how Trauma affect our bodies, how it is stored, how processed and how and why some traumatic events stick around and hold us back while others help us to grow.
Sync/Unsync is a two channel video installation that takes my interest in trauma processing and looks at different strategies for letting of steam, different methods to stay sane and attempts to be in sync with people around us. Three very different sets of people express their ways of finding release in front of the camera. Whether that is vocal improv, laughter Yoga or boxing. My participants have all told me how their practices help them touch something deep inside them, help them stay in balance with themselves and deal with their anxieties. They all use their bodies and voices to give shape to memories that are essential non-verbal, things like anger issues, anxieties, general life frustrations or deep sitting traumas they are not ready to talk about. A voice can both be jarring, as in a scream or soothing and connecting as with a song or laughter. A boxer needs to learn to read their opponents bodies and be fully comfortable within their own in order to fight well.
Dutch American Psychologist Bessel Van der Kolk writes in his book The Body Keeps the Score about how traumatic stress throws us out of sync with ourselves and others by preventing us from knowing what we know and feeling what we feel. He describes how very often the crux of healing traumatic stress lies in allowing the brain to know what the body knows and thus re-establish synchronicity within yourself. This in turn allows for meaningful connections to people around us. Being in sync as he calls it.
The two channels of the video in time mirror or contra point each other, they compliment or they jar. Jazz improv artist Maggie Nichols’ improvisation on the theme of ‘tension and release’ provides a sort of narrative for the sound track.
In addition the installation comprises four photographs from a self-published book produced a few years ago. The work of still photographs called ‘Closer’ is a collection of mostly close-up images taken at home that describe my conflicting feelings of a world simultaneously shrinking in on me and expanding onto new dimensions after becoming a father. My children set out to redecorate a few copies of the book. The results are striking and in a way they represent the beginning of my journey to find visual representations of trauma healing.
Things fall apart but can be put back together again.
Group Exhibition: Call It What You Will, The Moment Has Its Own Dimensions, A.P.T Gallery 17-27 March 2022
Panel Discussion: 24-March 2022, 5pm
Postgraduate Degree Shows: Goldsmiths, University of London New Cross SE14, 21-26 July 2022
Panel Discussion: 24-March 2022, 5pm
Postgraduate Degree Shows: Goldsmiths, University of London New Cross SE14, 21-26 July 2022