TICKLE © 2002 Edition of 6 2 minutes 45 seconds: “Tickle” is a three channel video installation documenting the transition from something inane, harmless and fun into something torturous and cruel. Unlike a sneeze or a hiccup, being tickled is not an involuntary force. It is impossible to tickle yourself, yet in the video, some invisible force is tickling the young boy seated at the top of the stairs. As the tickling and laughter progresses, the scene becomes more chaotic and exaggerated until the laughs turn into screams of torture followed by a sigh of relief in the end. The video “Tickle” straddles a line of ambiguity in which pleasure and pain are separated by an imperceptive boundary, which is revealed to be both comical and horrifying.
