Delicate Monster

Five-channel video installation
Variable dimensions
2004

Richard Humann_Delicate Monster video art installation at the Tampere Art Museum — Richard Humann • *Delicate Monster* • Five-channel video installation • Variable dimensions • 2004

Tampere Art Museum
Tampere, Finland
Museum Director: Janne Sirén

Commissioned by the Tampere Art Museum, Delicate Monster is a five-channel video installation whose subject matter recalls the tragedy of the September 11, 2001 attack on the Twin Towers in New York City.

Multiple people were recorded telling their personal story of the events of that tragic day. The videos were then run through computer manipulation software and slowed down to create a highly pixelated and distorted imagery. The five channels of the video played at once in the massive 10,000 sq. ft. exhibition hall, where multi-track audio and video created a deep sense of confusion for the viewer in the attempt to try to capture the turmoil of that morning.

Richard Humann • *Delicate Monster* • Five-channel video installation • Variable dimensions • 2004

Richard Humann • Delicate Monster at the Tampere Art Museum, 2004

“Four legs and two voices: a most delicate monster!”
– William Shakespeare, The Tempest
Delicate Monster gets its title from William Shakespeare's last play, The Tempest. It draws the similarity between the island of Manhattan and the fictional island where Prospero and his daughter were castaways, and where he caused the shipwreck of others by conjuring a mighty tempest through the use of magic.
The Tempest in this correlation and case, are the events of September 11, 2001, and the rippling effect that it had on New York City and the entire world.
The firsthand stories of the participants, although very personal and tragic, are universal throughout mankind. But unlike in The Tempest, there is no magic other than the innate human conditions of destruction and repair, and the collective willpower of survival and perseverance toward the goal of stability and normalcy.

Photo credits: Richard Humann Studio

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