If Pinholes Were Right Side Up, I Would Be Doing Handstands

Synopsis

The inversion of the body is a familiar and natural state in gymnastics, where handstands (逆立ち / sakadachi in Japanese) are an essential part of the physical lexicon. Camera obscuras share a similar state: the image is upside down. In both handstands and camera obscuras, the inverted body is the correct orientation. Inside a pinhole camera, we are always inverted, always upside down, except when in an actual handstand. Only then are we right side up, in an upside down handstand. This recurring logic of formal and conceptual reorientation found its way into a vignette using in-camera mattes that playfully inverts and subverts other systems of logic.