Two frantic days of racing against time are finally over, and despite a few last minute changes and hitches everything’s up and running (I’ve just typed ruining – some form of intuition?). Doors are now closed at the School of Art and the next time anyone’s allowed in will be at 6.30 on Saturday when the show opens.
Has it been worth it? I think so – even though there were times when I vowed never to put myself through this again. But then, I seem to remember saying the same thing on many occasions before, and look, here I am again. (Stupid or what?).
The room looks pretty sepulchral now that the lighting levels have been lowered. In fact with the door closed the atmosphere gets pretty spooky. Talking of atmosphere there has been an added bonus that I never imagined. The combined smells of hessian and paint within the room give that little ‘je ne sais quoi’ – not unpleasant but just a little bit strange; you can almost feel the dust of age – just right! As I said in one of my earlier blogs there are more questions than answers within the room, so I am preparing myself for the inevitable ‘what’s it all about? which is bound to happen at quite regular intervals.
The main theme to my work is how the interpretation of facts becomes twisted and changed over time and how it is not only the written word that brings about such changes, but also our own perceptions of the evidence supplied. At the same time the innate conditioning we are all subjects of ensures a particular – in most cases a predictable – reaction to any given set of stimuli and this can be further manipulated by the method of presentation used.
The installation ‘Wherein Lies the Truth’ presents fragments of fabricated tiles, some bearing script, which represent ‘facts’. The assemblage is set on a triangular floor which, when viewed from the front, provides a perspectival image. The lighting for the whole is diffused through hessian, making the work indistinct and requiring concentration to view properly.
The second piece ‘Orphanage’ is a glasstop display case containing the modified object, some of which have already appeared as images in my blog. These are the enigmatic orphans whose past is unknown and whose identity is catalogued by a cryptic caption only. Make of them what you will. You can create your own past for them, and who knows, if your story is convincing enough, then maybe everyone else will come to believe what you say, even though it only started out as a figment of your imagination.
Finally, the series of paintings, ‘Hard Facts’. These take up one complete wall of the room; each is individually uplit, and again because of the low lighting intensity, indistinct and enigmatic. White stone fragments float on multi-coloured backgrounds; simple pieces in a complex world. A closer inspection reveals gradations of shading; simple shapes become more subtle – the simple fact takes on a deeper meaning.
Anyway that’s some thoughts about what it’s all about. They are my thoughts and it will be interesting to see what others make of it on Saturday. Hope to give some feedback on how it went early next week. Until then – wish me luck!
