The performers are so occupied by their interactions, that they don’t have time to negotiate their image as they normally would on the Internet and so, almost without being aware of it, they show their vulnerabilities and doubts, their messy and sloppy sides, their “hidden code”.
-Annie Abrahams, Trapped to Reveal – On webcam mediated communication and collaboration
Annie Abrahams is a Dutch performance artist who focuses on video installations and internet related performances. She is particularly interested in portraying and expressing the idea of how performers are incapable of controlling their actions, or maintaining their social identity in the artwork.
In Angry Women, she got a group of women to vent their frustrations in front of their own webcams but on a platform with other strangers. In the video, the women can be seen talking at one point, then screaming and shouting. The timing as which this occurs to different individuals on the webcams varies however. They are alone together, and angry together.
Annie Abrahams intent on disentangling the entanglements in order to better understand the nature and quality of the third space environment we increasingly find ourselves in.
-Randell Packer, Disentangling the Entanglements
I felt like what Professor Randell Packer said about Annie Abraham’s work really reflected the nature of the piece. We are constantly putting out this face that we want to be seen online unknowingly and Annie Abraham’s work serves to exactly force the performers to express their true identity on camera and to disclose our true inner personality.