Aija Bley

Aija Bley was a pioneering video artist in the 1990s. Bley’s (then – Stafecka) work “Disruptions in Counting Time” is a vivid, free associating video collage. It comprises sequences from various periods, i.e. historical, biological, philosophical and psychological. The artist has collected all of the feelings and ideas which were important to her at the time. This is why Rainis, death, leg shaving, Dostoyevsky’s “The Idiot” and snails all meet in the same work.

The subject of the work conceptually touches on the relativity of time and possibilities for interpreting individual time and electronic time. Although the artist’s initial idea was to make fun of the striving by the art of her time to be “philosophically deep,” in the eyes of the viewer, the intended joke has become a classic example of being visually too clever by half. The work is a significant example of video art in the contemporary art context of the 1990s. It has won awards at several international video art festivals. 

Disruptions in Counting Time. 1993.