Iris Stream
2009
SD video with stereo audio
Duration: 4:48 mins 

“A deeply esoteric looping projection of spot colour, Iris Stream (2009) forms an entry point into the online digital culture of a decade ago, and the pseudoscientific theories of the last century. Based on the ‘colour healing’ videos commonly found on Youtube, Walsh’s video work forms part of his wider investigation into the theories of voguish psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich (d.1957). The doctor was a contemporary of Freud who fled Austria to the USA, where he proposed the theory of a universal life force, named Orgone energy. The energy was popularly thought to be pure Libido, which could be harnessed and amplified for a range of uses, from weather control to alleviating the pains of heroin withdrawal. The colours that appear in the video constitute the basis of a wistful esoteric self therapy, of an undetermined length.” – J.F