For her video installation piece \u00abBartleby\u00bb, Gabriele Stellbaum re-figured a gallery space 2009 into a film set. Cigar-brown wooden panels covered the walls, while two office desks with swivel chairs invited the visitor to sit down and watch a video projection that filled the space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stellbaum\u2019s piece draws from American author Herman Melville\u2019s 1853 story Bartleby the Scrivener -A Tale of Wall Street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Stellbaum\u2019s version of this famous work, the protagonist Bartleby is cast as a female office worker: pallid, neat, pitiably respectable, incurably forlorn\u2013an ever-present clerk, an insignificant figure who drives her employer into frustration and capitulation with her calm but resolute refusal to comply. The story is presented from the perspective of Bartleby\u2019s employer, a figure never shown in the video.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whenever Bartleby is asked to do anything, she simply and politely replies \u00abI would prefer not to\u00bb and then continues with the work she is doing. This behavior continues until the day Bartleby finally quits doing any work at all and just remains sitting at her desk. This policy of refusal drives her employer out of the premises while Bartleby prefers not to quit her job.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For her video installation piece \u00abBartleby\u00bb, Gabriele Stellbaum re-figured a gallery space 2009 into a film set. Cigar-brown wooden panels<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17849,"template":"","meta":[],"movie_genre":[239,869],"movie_tag":[895,896],"class_list":["post-17850","movie","type-movie","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","movie_genre-video","movie_genre-videocreation","movie_tag-2017-en","movie_tag-festival-2017-en"],"yoast_head":"\n