It’s smooth
Installation – Video Loop
2020
This project is based on Deborah Madden’s description of her collective experience in a team pursuit, where 2 teams face each other on either side of the track. A team consists of 4 cyclists who are arranged one behind the other with the least amount of space between them. They relay each other to achieve the best time over 4km. The focus is put on the precision of the collective performance, and on the position of the body which constrains the vision of each one. Each person fixes the one in front of them to keep the rhythm, each one in precise and different places.
4 videos in round format represent the subjective vision of each person during this event. In this rigour, the wheels and the surface of the track become hypnotic, and erase any sign of competition.
*The Sundrive velodrome in Dublin is outdoor.
« For team pursuit, because there’s four of us, and then three… what I see is the woman I’ve actually usually ride on a particular wheel. I’m on wheel 3, and rider 2, my friend Susie, I see the brake bridge of her bike, that’s what my vision of team pursuit is. So there is a visual for that, and the rhythm, and the flow I see is the fact that I’m a part of that. » Deborah Madden