Pipilotti Rist - (y)our lungs sound in an infinite forest

Pipilotti Rist, a pioneer of spatial video art, was born 1962 in Grabs in the Swiss Rhine Valley on the Austrian Border and has been a central figure within the international art scene since the mid-1980s. Through large video projections and digital manipulation, she has developed immersive installations that draw life from slow caressing showers of vivid colour tones.

Lobe Of The Lung

Pepperminta, a red-haired woman, travels across land and water in this work. She is mostly unclothed to represent a human being unconnected to a time, class or place. Her body is magnified and multiplied, while a pig, apples, tulips and strawberries appear distorted and giant.

As Pepperminta moves through water, her menstrual blood blends into the sea. This could represent her desire to be at one with nature. Rist has said, ‘I think a girl should shout for joy the first time she gets her period, because it is a symbol of creative power, of life. Blood, our lifeblood.’

Rist’s environments blur the boundaries between the real and the virtual world. Drawn in by her dream-like spaces and larger-than-life images, we might feel transported to another universe. There is no dialogue for us to follow, only a psychedelic soundtrack by Anders Guggisberg and Roland Widmer – two of the artist’s many long-term collaborators.