In the beginning, there was rhythm.

A rhythm of a germinating seed, cells continuously dividing, heartbeats. It preceded the word, the identity, and the cause. And this recurring cycle, natural and ancient, is the living beat of the body, coming before the signifier, prior to the word and speech.

This pre-verbal rhythm thrums in the video works by Yasmin Davis: primal, familiar, eluding definition. Her works resonate with unceasing, unclassified motion, making the need for concrete contexts and plots redundant. Davis’ cinematic language is frugal and lacks any excess. She forgoes stylistic mannerisms, dialogue, or a saturated soundtrack. She speaks the language of pure cinema, of using the most fundamental tool in the cinematic toolbox. 

The exhibition “Blink of an Eye” brings together four of her works in two separate chapters. Three works were created in 2014-18 and they comprise the first chapter. The fourth work, a video titled “Rustle” (2023) presents the second chapter. Both chapters are constructed in a periodic course of small gestures, encounters and farewells, longing and refusal, exposure and obscurity, threat and protection.