Installation Documentation

Installation Documentation from Katelin Hager on Vimeo.

My video “Obsession” is an exploration of an idea I developed because of obsessive cleaning habits that my family and I partake in. It all started because of something a family friend said to me once, “You know your dad looks crazy going around the house and turning everything until it’s at a 90 degree angle? And you obsessing over one little spot on one glass…. Yeah. You guys look crazy.” This comment still carries with me to this day. I wanted to record someone else obsessing over the same things I might have obsessed over. I wanted to see the “crazy” and show everyone else. From living in this lifestyle, I know it’s sort of a sickness. Because of this, I also wanted to bring my understanding of obsession or OCD to a more visual stance (instead of an explanation that you would read). I wanted to do this to show others but also as a process for myself to better understand what my life was composed of. Which is where the mantra comes in; obsession, mania, fascination, fixation, to name a few, describes the mindset in which an obsessive person is in. While they are not thinking these words, the thoughts they are thinking stem from the ideas provided by these words. Since each scene or “chapter” as I like to call it, has a different matter at hand, a viewer may see the switch of subject matter as less obsessive and more ritualistic. However, a person who is obsessed with cleanliness has a preconceived idea of perfection (in their opinion), which everything they touch must achieve. The one chapter I would consider most important in consolidating the video is the scene where the woman fixates on the picture frame. The use of the Droste/ Escher effect was intended to demonstrate the sickness most strongly. It shows both literally and figuratively that it is something that spirals out of control and traps your mind. It wraps up the concepts I used throughout the rest of the video and provides a visual of the craziness that an obsessed person may experience or even the same sort of madness my friend observed.