- Venue
- Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art (NGCA)
- Location
- North East England
DECOMPRESSION CHAMBER By putting the least inspiring piece of this exhibition to be the first seen was a necessary risk. It was a shoulder shrugging exhibit with a lame expression. I wouldn`t have climbed into that amateur made box to be locked in and to have water beneath me for my limbs to rest into because any dawn walker knows it makes you wee. It actually rarely works on your friends lying in a drunken stupor at 4am – but it could – so I wouldn`t risk it. Also; it looks like it would fall apart under the weight of me. Anyhow – it was cordoned off, so all you could get into were the forced preparatory drawings for making the thing. I didn`t believe in it. However, I loved the rest of the exhibition. I mean I loved it.These were thinking and meditating spaces of all sorts of shapes – and I`m not one for participation – but I took my boots off and eased onto the tipping disc, and I crawled into a cardboard tent with pinholes that refracted light beams. I enjoyed the womb like pod for its well considered comfort – but most – it was wonderful to think that our time would give way to such a peaceful futuristic lifestyle. To imagine that our culture would accept and aid the individual’s need for private space and identification with the eternal mysterious universe filled my heart with hope; but soon I knew it was just a dream. In the back room were polystyrene blocks with cavities carved out to sit and shelter in. I envisioned streets lined with them with lightbulbs rigged up to the lamp-posts.They were perfect for the homeless. Cheap and light and not really big enough.
