In my art practice I often look to tools or equipment to reflect on the conditions of control and consumption within our globalizing societies. My new research is concerned with the attention economies and for this work I aim to weave material explorations with theories that connect looking to thinking.
Panel Piece (Surface Impressions 1) - Charcoal rubbing from an embossed metal warning sign, analogue b/w print showing a window display for orthodox-finery/costume, and the crumpled, faded surface of a printed advert on a tarpaulin at a flea market. All images tentatively held in place by plaster cast Athens fridge magnets.
Untitled (Artforum adverts) - Artforum magazine advert pages cocooned into cylindrical paper beads.
Doorbell 1 (The Wind) - A black beaded curtain with 120 golden bells arranged in a wave formation in two lines. The motif echoes the graphic lines of the printed image on an adjacent wall. When you walk through the beaded curtain the bells gently tinkle and the beaded strands continue to swing and wave.
Not seen: Door bell chime & sensor installed above street entrance of gallery. ‘Doorbell 1 (The Wind)’ was partnered with ‘Doorbell 2 (A Measure)’. Binary and intermittent this second door-bell was set off by anything in the passage of the doorway, sounding a distorted electronic ‘ding-dong’ each time. Bells motif: 50cm x 85cm x 2cm , Beaded curtain : 700cm x 250cm x 1cm.
Word World Making: A Workshop - Image shows a group of people in a workshop setting, gathered around a table within an exhibition space. Part of the 'When is a Door not a Door?' work involved developing a spatiopoetics workshop alongside my Chinese teacher Juntong Yu, the workshop involved experimenting with ways to compose Chinese characters. We used fragments of characters - lego figures. Exploring how to use these fragments visually, symbolically and spatially. This involved drawing, discussing and positioning ourselves within the space and with the artworks installed. After creating a lexicon of new signs for new knowledge we collectively composed our signs as a poem within the space.
Not seen: Prior to this workshop, in developing 'When is a Door not a Door?' I had begun a course: ‘Learning Chinese through Poetry’, (with Juntong Yu) which involved looking at Chinese poems and tracing language use and meaning construction within China. My grandfather whose name I carry was from Southern China and spoke Cantonese.
When is a Door not a Door? - A hanging sculpture in the shape of a (Mandarin) Chinese character in the aesthetic of industrial, commercial signage, made from heat treated steel and translucent black acrylic. This common Chinese character at the centre of the installation 'When is a Door not a Door?' means... 1* In the physical realm: a door, entrance, a place where things/objects pass through (valve, switch). 2* In the symbolic realm: a mental gate (category, school of thought). 3* In the realm of time: a passage of generation (family).
Not seen: The significance of using a radical semantic character from simplified Chinese (introduced in 1949) intends to tie the work to the legislature and control of language and its use. 220cm x 200cm x 25cm.
Déjà vu - Audio installation within the big flume of a disused leisure centre. Audio script features poetic text referencing the perceptive un-sync of déjà vu and recorded tunnel echoes that loop within, and are amplified by, the tunnel shaped slide. Excerpt:
"It was here somewhere... you could remember the rhythm of this section, the focus on the top hand corner, where you thought of ear-marking a section of reality, something to come back to later, something that was important...
Recollection? Discarded -Familiarity? Found [...]"
In-Basket - Video installation featuring two looping works: 'Tasty Morsels' and 'In-Basket'. Installed with ceramic objects, Chinese newspaper and tin-can supports. Above image: In-Basket (3'10") HD video on flatscreen.
Assume Every Rustle in the Grass is a Tiger - Video installation featuring two looping works: 'Tasty Morsels' and 'In-Basket'. Installed with ceramic objects, Chinese newspaper and tin-can supports. Above image: Tasty Morsels (3'54") projected video loop.
Shatterproof - Engraved opal acrylic and watercolour on paper.
Actualised Shelf - Audio script work with powder coated handles. Excerpt from audio:
[...]
Stuck in a youloop,
Youloop, youloop, you loop -
Around.
Snaring - and glimpsing - and sharing - The transactional self-actual,
[self actualised here]
So sell me objects of certainty for my future.
Please?
Re-organise my shelf.
No thank you.
Add this to my list.
No thank you.
Suggest another book?
Thank you.
Defined edges with high quality, inexpensive-authenticity, expanses of
openness, free-thinking and approachability.
Please?
No thank you.
Please?
No thank you.
Self-actional pleasure.
Shelf-actional archive.
Reading in process
Please wait...
[...]
