COMBINE 2012: Annual Undergraduate Student Exhibition

As the grains of sand rush incessantly through the holes of the glass box and rest calmly on the gallery’s floor, the water unhurriedly covers the exposed body of Feliz Tupe. The tension builds up and gradually the artist becomes helpless, trapped in the white washed cube of water. The box ignites: the Baptism is over.

In the video installation piece “Baptism,” Feliz Tupe presents to the audience a re-birth of religious and spiritual ideas through a physical interpretation of baptism. The video captures Tupe’s side view inside a white cube as water is poured over her head. She sits silently grabbing her knees with her head lowered while her hair covers her face. As the water fills up the cube, the artist is immersed until the box bursts. Accompanying the video, an installation with running sand in a clear glass container follows the progress of time. The two pieces happen simultaneously as they compose the redefined ritual of baptism.

The clear water, the inoffensive body and the conciseness of materials indicate a detachment from the outside world. The process becomes a ritual of re-cleansing that indicates a new beginning. A new form of baptism is understood as the artist re-creates the process of Christianisation in a nutshell. The seclusion of the performance, together with the tightness of space, alludes to an unknown, distant space of the mind.

The video also allows room for questioning the extent of benevolence in baptism. The re-cleansing turns into a force-feed ritual that is endured by the artist. The cold, sharp-edged structure dominates the space, unsettling and nerve-wracking. The feeling of confinement and impotency is immediate. The notion of baptism is portrayed as both physically and emotionally painful. The idea of re-birth is underscored as a dead-end to the audience. The nude body is vulnerable, contracted and powerless. The small box imprisons the artist as the water slowly takes over the scene.

Anxiety inhabits not only the viewer’s mind but also the artist’s. As a result, time becomes a crucial factor to the piece. The reference to time, made tangible by the sand clock, extends from the moment that the first drop of water falls until the artist becomes breathless and motionless in the cube. The weight of history is understood through the long-lasting process of baptism.