Saturday 5 June 2010

☛☚ please touch

an excellent show at the Tap Gallery
curated by Michaela Freeman
please touch
presents work that demands to be experienced:
behind the black curtain sit and listen
to a recording of Sam Holden :
'you are rummaging through your parents things, when
you are discovered ~ freeze'
hold your pose as the camera captures your 
moment .... 
 it is screened in another room,
BIG, for others to see:
plasticene seed-like shapes 
by Helen Sturgess, are asking to 
be reformed
and be transformed:
 with every person
who pushed or pulled this blackness:
more pulling:
for a fabulous origami surprise
inside by Chris Mercier:
his beautiful press, dating from 1945
let us print our own card:
unlike the Rossendale Communist Party who 
used it for their membershipcards:
we left with a numbered piece of html:
*which will produce this ☟



letterpress2webpage





read more ? ...


HTMLpress - Chris Mercier 2009


sitting in this chair I listened to the recorded voices
of this man:
James Harlequin and Gene Van Flitcroft, chronic alcoholics,
are the sons of an audacious British
amateur golfer and reknown hoaxer called Maurice:
here they recount the fabulous tales of their father:
car crash listening, compelling and dark:
the book of not knowing by Laura Kennedy:
360 soaps engraved with hand stamped fears:
you select one
 then fill the sink with water and 
wash wash wash wash
until the letters have washed away:

it's a refreshing change to be invited to 
listen, touch, pull, wash away your fears, 
sit down and wait, spend some 
time watching icecream melt:
there's light and dark
and participation from you:
and this show positively encourages it:

3 comments:

  1. absolutely brilliant! I love this notion, it's not just interacting with the art, but effecting and changing it's form. Such an original idea and I'm really loving the plasticine seeds and bars of soap. The artists involved have taken an incredibly brave step to allow their work to be altered in this way, to not be precious. Wish I'd been there with you :(

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dee - this is such a fab poetic review! love it, thanks! Also wonderful photos...
    x Michaela

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  3. me too Suzie! the soaps were my fave ~ they had you considering the words and their poignancy as you washed them away:
    I'm not sure I'd so easily relinquish my work:

    thanks Michaela ~ it's an excellent show and refreshingly different:
    well done!

    ReplyDelete

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