With the caressing and gentle persuasion that everything will be all right I am comforting a plush dog with big sad eyes. This ridiculous action has two points of departure: one is that I believe that the dog is alive and under stress and I can comfort him; the other is that I am fully aware of the dog being a toy and I am actually comforting myself while caressing him.
In both ways one can begin to question my sanity. The whiteness of my clothes, the sofa and the dog reflects the whiteness of a mental institution while the hushed sound of the clock in the background emphasizes the solitude and the slow passing of time.
This video is a part of a body of work dealing with the theme of optimism bias and positive illusion. These psychological terms describe the overly optimistic beliefs of an individual and present a perfect illustration of the dictatorship of positive thinking that is widely spread by the New Age movement and self-help literature. Taking into account the current world financial and medical crisis the act of comforting can be perceived in a new perspective. (Source: Vesna Bukovec)