But that's another story, Part II (Jeff Wall, Milk 1984)

If we want to imagine how many times Jeff Wall had to try to get the "right moment" in his famous Photo "Mi lk", 1984, Schauecker gives us an insight with an intense but at the same time comic recreation. Schauecker condenses to about 10 minutes what probably took hours in the original. We hear a loudspeaker voice guiding, directing Schauecker to the positions needed to find the "right one"(photo). She is patient and does her best to follow. Small milk containers are set up next to her on the floor "Thats a lot of milk -let' s do something di fferent wi th i t" says the voice in a strong swiss accented English as she drinks and improvises with it. She sits differently and throws the milk to the side and starts to get wet while spilling it all over ·her. "Not so fast, I wasn't ready" . Insists the voice. The camic character comes from the constant effort fram both the director and the model in really trying to spill the milk in the spectacular way that Wall captured i t in the original. The jump from frozen photo to 1iving performanc~ 1S 0 fascinating opportuni ty for the viewer. We rel ive the setting where the severity and hardness of the brick back wall along with it's unforgiving grid works as metaphor for our society. Shauecker's version is a simply painted cardboard loosely taped as background . But it does not matter, though theatrical in setting, the performance of the artist as Performance Artist and not Performing Artist is still appreciated. This recreation which relies on the supposed Art Directing the author probably gave to the Model in the original relies on the Performance qualities of Schauecker to make the point.

Carlos Varela