Tiphanie Kim Mall
Hauskatze
2020
Digital video, color, sound
22 min, loop
May 4 – June 30, 2024
(Schaufenster am Hofgarten & online)
Tiphanie Kim Mall’s video Hauskatze follows the everyday activities of her cat through the eyes of the four-legged companion. For this, the artist has attached a camera to the cat’s collar in order to let it do the filming. The work panders two voyeuristic desires at once: we are granted access to the pet’s perspective, while at the same time gaining an intimate view of the artist’s home, which doubles as studio, where we can observe her both at work and at rest. The footage was recorded over the period of six months and edited into a loose narrative that portrays their daily routine of cohabitation.
The image is constantly framed by the cat’s whiskers as we follow its movements through the shared home: at times erratically jumping onto furniture, then leisurely strolling, or simply resting. The animal’s gaze wanders over paper documents or discloses fragments of Mall’s e-mail correspondences, just as it records its beloved food bowl, details of the floor and wall, or repeatedly captures the artist from different angles depending on its level of (dis-)interest in the reference subject. Emblematic of the communication between humans and cats, the audio track reveals only a few, mostly indecipherable scraps of word. The sound is otherwise characterized by the meowing cat, demanding the artist’s attention, and the rustle caused by its activities.
A particular relationship between interior and exterior runs throughout the work, which is also accentuated at the Kunstverein. On the one hand, due to the measures imposed in connection with the corona pandemic in 2020, the everyday life of Mall and her cat was largely confined to the second-floor apartment and the view from there onto the street. On the other hand, the protagonists stay trapped in the institution’s shop window in which the video is presented. Mall and Pana—the cat’s name, which is revealed during an affectionate exchange between the two—observe each other: for what we see is not just the cat’s perspective, but the footage from the camera it has been equipped with, bringing Pana’s and the artist’s intertwined lives into the focus of observation.
Video still: Hauskatze, 2020; courtesy Tiphanie Kim Mall.
The project is funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation and the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.