In a quietly radical act of feminist performance art, Vienna-based artist Rozina Pátkai transforms an ordinary suburban zebra crossing into a stage for the unseen labor of domestic life. Carrying an impossible accumulation of household objects: a drying rack, shopping trolley, mattress, pushchair, child’s bicycle, she repeatedly attempts to cross the street, stumbling under the weight of these everyday burdens.

Review by Victoria Angelique :

The artistic short film, INVISIBLE, is a thought provoking piece that can raise many questions with its very title. The title suggests a woman that would be invisible, but she’s not in the physical sense because the cars are stopping at the crosswalk as she continues to walk back and forth with various objects. It’s what she is carrying that makes her invisible because at first it’s a usual scene only to become more elaborate as the seconds pass.

There’s not much unusual about a woman crossing the street with a pram, as this is quite an everyday scene in many countries. It becomes a social experiment when the woman begins adding to it, carrying quite large objects as she struggles to cross the street as she struggles to get the stroller across the crosswalk without dropping objects. Cars continuously stop, waiting patiently for her to cross without honking their horns, and it’s only at the halfway mark of the film that one person helps this woman with what she’s carrying. One person throughout the entire film chooses to help her. 

This raises several questions about these situations. The woman even abandons the scenario with the pram a couple of times to see if it would change things, still carrying items that would relate to childcare, and it doesn’t change anything. This poses questions such as have people become so uncaring that they no longer help a struggling mother like they used to, if it’s this particular city, or is there something about this particular woman? This film makes the viewer think that maybe that as humans we have become so self-absorbed that we care more about getting to our destination than taking a few seconds to help another person. 

INVISIBLE is certainly a thought provoking film, since it literally shows that the majority of people are no longer helping. They are simply moving about their business when someone is literally struggling while pretending not to notice. This film might motivate someone to help next time they see someone that needs assistance.