- Venue
- Mander Centre
- Location
- West Midlands
“Accessible art”
As an advocate of accessible art I was thrilled to encounter the work of artist, George Clark-Roden within a vacant shop, housed in the Mander Centre shopping mall Wolverhampton. Contemporary art, in an everyday space, for members of the public to connect with as they go about their daily routine. How utterly civilised.
I was immediately seduced by the vibrant colour palette used to create abstract digital prints, feeling uplifted and energised as I ventured into this relatively intimate space I could see that the piece de resistance stood elegantly, enticing towards the back of the shop. A vision of illuminated nylon rods, which at first glance look like a curtain of spaghetti strings beckoned me. Their aura pulls like a magnet until you are standing, confronting, admiring, daring to touch and then through the deliberate gap you focus on yet another seducer. This one in the form of a giant “vase” of shiny spheres impaled on rods, yet the only way to get to them is by forcing your body through the “spaghetti”. As you do so you become the centre of attention, suddenly you have entered into a performance, no longer the passive spectator but instead an active one and in the words of Jacques Ranciere you become “the emancipated spectator” [1]nylon rods having a “voice “cry out to their master, I tentatively turn my head to check that my actions are permissible and their creator Clark-Roden smiles and nods. So not only is the work accessible but also interactive. Breaking down barriers between artist and spectator creating an opportunity for discourse .With sound acting as the hostess, introducing spectator to artist we conversed.
He said:- “I like creating immersive work, this interactive sound sculpture works like three inter-dependent mechanical cogs, the first being the form, the second the sound and the third the participant, who from the moment of interaction becomes the interface between the form and the sound. Each sound sequence produced is totally unique.”
“The work focuses on the development and facilitation of interactive sonic encounters”.
So, having passed through to the other side I was presented with the “vase” of snooker balls impaled on the end of steel rods and again I felt the urge to touch and interact and having experienced the acoustics of the nylon rods it seemed only natural to strum the snooker balls. There is something quite magical about interactive art; it’s as if the artist is offering trust and respect to the spectator. By giving trust we tend to build a mutual respect, and by interacting we feel involved and part of something, a sense of ownership of a shared experience. The art changes and becomes its own record of the journey; we the spectators leave a trace in exchange for a memory.
Barriers duly broken I felt at ease to enter into a dialogue with Clark-Roden, an enlightening experience.
”The digital prints consist of digital photographic stills depicting images created by the transitional passage of fluid, layered projections form the final image within a semi-autonomous process of creative research”.
I discovered that the inspiration behind this body of work is multifaceted, artists Luigi Russolo (musician and artist 1913 ‘the art of noise’), John cage (minimalist musical works and philosopher) and Brian Eno (musician and artist, ‘77 million paintings’ combining and layering his hand-made slides) each have a part to play but there are personal factors too:
Clark-Roden studied visual art to foundation level in Walsall some years ago and followed that with jewellery making in Cornwall, a London career in the music business (where he nurtured his knowledge of audio) and more latterly, garden design. Throughout he has continued to be a maker of creative artefacts.
It was about four years ago that he first thought about combining sound and art and he is “inspired by the depth of engagement that he gets amalgamating sound and the visual arts”. He studied Fine art at the University of Wolverhampton as a means to engage with other artists and to utilize the excellent facilities and resources allowing his visions to become realities.
Clark-Roden is on the cutting edge of contemporary art, Sound art is a complex multidimensional medium using not only a physical space but also a virtual space it can be described as sound sculpture. Also the interactive element, the relational aesthetic places him with the likes of Felix Gonzalez-Torres and Rirkrit Tiravanija. Yet, in my opinion, more importantly is the location, where I found him, brave enough to stand alone, to be there, without the support of the “machinery of the art World”, in a shopping centre, reaching out to a diverse audience.
Writer detail:-
Helen Read, undergraduate Fine artist, University of Wolverhampton.
Exhibition Venue detail:-
Mander Centre, Mander House, Wolverhampton WV1 3NH
22 Feb-12 March 2010
[1]Jacques Ranciere, Artforum, March 2007 p.271
