Eestee Lauder – Hypnosis session

Estée Lauder is a Gloucester-based, Indian-born Myna bird, with whom the artist Michela de Mattei has been in conversation via Skype since September 2015. This long-term relation has led to the creation of a number of works, including four video pieces.

Each video of the series is formatted as Skype conversations that unfold between fiction and reality. In order to attempt a shared language with the bird and reflect on possible connections between human and animal the artist adopts online tutorial strategies.

In Hypnosis session (2018), the last film of the series commissioned by Serpentine Galleries as part of the Symposium ‘The Shape of a Circle in the Mind of a Fish’, the artist draws upon hypnosis technique to deepen the level of communication, questioning limits on conditions of captivity.