I Dreamed Sheet Lightnings Other Night

Video installation, mixed media (e-waste, fluorescent lamps, video), 2016

14.09 - 21.10.2016 - solo show at CCI Fabrika at Marina Fomenko atelier

14.09 - 21.10.2016 - participant of 1st Worldwide Apartment and Studio Biennale

Sheet lightnings are the flashes of a distant storm, a silent warning of the coming tempest.

In the myths of various nations, a mouse is a child of a thunderstorm. In Russian language words “thunderstorm” and “threat” have the same route. I would like to connect the electronic "mice" and their prototype, the real mice, with the threat they pose. Rodent plague triggers fears  which exist at the back of our mind. "E-waste offensive" as an invasion of electronic mice, resembled their tailed precursors, keeps us if not in in awe, then in anxiety.

A film, which is an integral part of the installation, shows sheet lightnings and genuine mice who fight with each other and who are sent into outer space (footage from open archives without ©). The video makes a contribution to escalation of the overall anxiety of the situation, which creates by a mountain of e-waste and by "sprawling" of lots and lots of electronic "mice".­

In addition, the term "sheet lightning" refers to the famous Soviet children military game "Sheet lightning" when playing, you think about a possible war.

Installation is interactive. Everybody can bring their computer mice and add them to the installation.

ArtTube interviewed Marina Fomenko about this project.