Un escalier est un escalier est un escalier

Victoria Welby

Artist Statement

"People are no longer locked away in asylums. Nowadays they found Cubism." -- Pablo Picasso

Un escalier est un escalier est un escalier (A staircase is a staircase is a staircase) is an hypermedia experience borrowing from Gertrude Stein's literary cubism and from Hans Canosa's beautiful film, Conversation(s) with Other Women, as well as from Prague's cubist architecture (the staircase is the one from the Cubism Museum in Prague).

As one clicks on the steps, texts appear on the screen, unveiling the story of three characters: a woman and a man crossing paths as they climb the stairs, and a bystander. The piece offers different points of view, each one with its own perspective, outcome, actions, consequences. These points of view are often contradictory in and of themselves, as well as in regard to one another, therefore actualizing many possible—and conflicting—aspects of the same storyline.

In order to appreciate the work, you will need FlashPlayer and sound. For those who like their story well ordered, an order—quite relative—can be attained by beginning at the bottom of the staircase and moving up.

::: view (Français) :::

::: view (English) :::

The music is My Morning Sad Song, taken from Jéranium's album Near You. All rights reserved. Thanks to Aya Karpinska for her suggestions with the English version of this work.

Biography

Victoria Welby is an avatar born in a virtual dating website. Because her creator did not want a numbered nickname, she picked an English semiotician's name, necessarily unknown to people found on such websites. Welby's first public appearance happened in May 2006 with two literary projects using the blog as a publishing platform. Because she did not want to associate her real name to those projects, Victoria's creator decided to use the semiotician's name again. All her literary projects, whether electronic or on paper, are now signed with that name.

Those projects produce different portraits of Welby. One, for example, depicts her as a cynical and sarcastic feminist, while the other represents her as a woman fond of sex, erotica and pornography. Her portrait is also determined by the existence of her English homonym and her creator, with whom she shares some traits and not others.

Victoria Welby is a virtual character in continuous construction who can be defined only by accepting the law of excluded middle. Otherwise, schizophrenia is the only option.