CollDocumentary
Rebecca Horn / ‘Pencil Mask’ (‘Bleistiftmaske’) 1972
Rebecca Horn / Performances II
‘Pencil Mask’ (‘Bleistiftmaske’) 1972
Performances II 1972 is a thirty-five minute colour film shown as video consisting of a collection of performance works enacted for the camera. The performances focus on interventions on the human body, using feathers, hair and garment-like sculptures worn by a performer, and are set against a neutral background or an otherwise deserted outdoor location. Most actions are performed by one or two people, with the exception of ‘Head Extension’, which has five participants. Each of the segments that comprise Performances II is introduced by a title card bearing the individual title of each performance in German and its year of realisation, in white characters on black. The soundtrack consists of occasional ambient sounds, although it is mostly silent.
‘Pencil Mask’ (‘Bleistiftmaske’) 1972 shows the artist wearing a mask made out of green strips of fabric arranged in a grid, with a pencil mounted like a spike at each point where the strips cross. Rebeca Horn is seen frontally, touching an invisible surface with the tip of the pencils, then she turns towards a white vertical surface and proceeds to brush against it repeatedly, drawing layer after layer of lines as the pencils are dragged from side to side.
Film, 16mm, 1972
