“Metal de sacrifício”, 2011
Video/Installation , Metal Zincor, copper and water , vinil text and 40 acrylic boxes.
FFCT- University of Sience and Tecnology Foundation, Monte da Caparica.
Ir(Reversible Systems) , 2008/11
Double side version
Marseille 2011
Susana Anagua travaille sur les «formes industrielles». Decontextualisées, ses images évoquent beaucoup de choses et notamment une sculpture cinétique abstraite. Dans son installation (IR)reversible Systems, elle joue avec des fils de coton tendus entre chaque vidéo. Les fils prolongent l’image dans l’espace et créent un trouble entre ce qui est image et ce qui est réel. Ils impliquent aussi une déambulation particulière pour appréhender l’oeuvre. L’image dédoublée dont on ne saisit pas véritablement ce qu’elle représente, se résume en une roue que l’on présume faire partie d’une machine. Ce que le son diffusé
dans la salle nous confirme.
L’installation joue donc avec nos perceptions et tous nos sens. Elle implique l’image et la sculpture (l’espace) dans un mouvement rotatif, visuel et sonore, Là encore le mouvement peut être réel ou virtuel. L’oeuvre joue également avec notre corps, celu-ci est contraint par les éléments de la pièce à un déplacement latéral.
Martine
” Polar “, 2008
1.80×2.75cm 2600 compasses, motor and magnetic fields
Labirintos
OBRAS DA COLECÇÃO DO CAM
De 29 Set 2011 a 17 Nov 2011
Das 10:00 às 18:00
Terça a Domingo
Galeria de Exposições da Sede, piso 01
Associada ao Fórum Gulbenkian Saúde 2011 (dias 25 e 26 Outubro), a exposição propõe um espaço alternativo de reflexão: aquele que as obras de arte induzem e dinamizam, de um modo diferente do de qualquer outra actividade humana, acrescentando-lhe preciosas mais-valias.
O enigma do sentido a atribuir à existência e a forma como é perseguido ou abandonado na adolescência, os caminhos e o desnorte, a perturbação, a fantasia e o excesso ou os sinais de ancoragem pontuam tematicamente o percurso pelas obras aqui proposto.
Questões como a da identidade, e a da sua determinação neurobiológica, cultural e psíquica, entendidas num âmbito alargado, definem também os quadros de referência da sua leitura.
Curadoria: Leonor Nazaré
Autor(es)
Leonor Nazaré, ed. lit.
Alda Galsterer, co-aut.
Ana Filipa Candeias, co-aut.
Catarina Crua, co-aut.
José Oliveira, co-aut.
Emílio Rui Vilar, apresent.
Afonso Ramos, trad.
Inês Fialho Brandão, trad.
Conceição Candeias, rev
Obra publicada por ocasião da exposição organizada e patente no Centro de Arte Moderna José de Azeredo Perdigão da Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisboa, de 29 Setembro de 2011 a 17 Novembro de 2011; catálogo colectivo de artistas portugueses e estrangeiros; ed. bilíngue, em português e inglês; contém referências bibliográficas.
Cal Viva e Polén
Com Cristina Ataíde
A casa Encarnada
Com Cristina Ataíde
Even if the all installation was initially planed to work in a dark space to provide that in between the videos presentation the bottles filed with luminescent paint could glow, the fact is that in the black out parts of the video the projector bulb still does illuminate the room enabling the see the paint glow in its full energy.
still , I don´t know yet if is better for the work to remove the bottles or not. They seam to have a lot of other connections with the videos, and their presence works with the initial intend of having a relation in between the light of the projector and the projection wall itself.
The video was edited with 30 seconds of a black plan to provide a time to observe the botles glowing in the space.
Becouse this situation is not working in the full intetion , doesn´t make sense anymore to keep dark in the room for such a long period of time.
Im ajusting the black out time for the maximum of 15 seconds . The observer can see part of the luminuscence botles but not in the full energy.
I decided to present the video in four different moments;
1- Sagres wheel 2- Piccadilly Circus 3- Sagres botlles 4- IMArabic lifts
This is the first set of the four video presentation.
This washing machine from Sagres Insdustry is one of the two connections in betwen the botles instalation.
The Machines works to wash and recycle botles from used beers .
In this second video , I m presenting a plan of Piccadilly Circus where the people actions shows the peculiar existence of this non-place. People came and go , or use this round about as a meeting point. In order to visualize the patterns created by peoples actions I decided to change the of the video image to 500%. Also when this Islamic women is crossing the image and the space I felt really like an interruption of the entire hole of action and I decided to slow down the image rate to 25%, and add music. The music change the moment and creates an interference showing this particular moment as an Noise.
Its also very interesting for me that now this moment connects to the last and 4th video presented. The lifts situation were filmed inside the Institute of the Arabic World in Paris.
The connection with the bottles continues as they are metaphor for the Human individuality inside a circle as Society. Also the formal connection in between the shapes of the round about and the circle in the room .
This 3rd video is filmed inside the Sagres Beer Industry and the reason i edited after the Piccadilly video is becouse I felt was a connection in betwen crowed places , mechanical actions related to Human movements .
This is the final and 4th video .
8551120 Assemblage Project
The moving images were send to Paulo Sousa that uses de images to creat the composition .
Normally I explain the context of the images , my intention behind them and how could work with a sound .
For the 4th video , Paulo did a relation with the movement of 6 lifts running (even if you only can see just 4 of them in the image) up and down inside the building . So every sound is connect with the scheme of the image divided in up and down by tree lifts each . Every time one of them moves the sound comes as a character for each of them .
http://anagua.wordpress.com/final-show/
The space is ready and I set up all the 113 Little bottles of glass . I used a fishing wire very thinner in order to create more lighting visual effect . The bottles were previously filled with a small amount of Photoluminuscence paint.
For the final show I had this space to exibhit my work .
Its was very good for my work that I had the possibility of having a independent room . Not sharing the room with other pears work was profitable because I could plan a hole dark room.
Being part of the curating team gave me the notion of the all works inside the space and how the display of then could work with my room and work also .
So I started thinking in the demands of my installation and a dark room came as a solution .
The walls are painted in dark grey as the floor and in the front wall projection I ll make an exactly rectangle painted in white for the 4:3 projection.
Elephant and Castle
still in room 506-F . A view from my window
Just now that I’m moving out to another place , realise the importance of this view and in particular of the Elephant and Castle environment.
I can say that this is my MA Tutor (Andy Stiff) influence to as he in his personal work is also very interest in this particular area. Made me look with more attention to the environment I was living in.
I’m challenge myself to do some practical work in a different method that i was doing previously .
So as my attention was attracted for the view of my window I intend to explore the history of it.
in this case the view is a particular case of interest because next to the new Strata building is the “Old Modernist” one . At the time , I guess in the 70s when was built , this structure was the highest one with the better view and functional spaces . Now Strata is reaching just side by side a new size to the area . To compare in between then it seams a irony of Man’s dissatisfaction . And the new becomes old so quick . This dissatisfation makes the disappearance of the concept of New.
In a previously post i already captured some moments of Srata construction, showing already an attraction for that image that was growing up in my room. Its amazing seeing, everyday the frame of the window as a screen with a real life moving images changing
http://anagua.wordpress.com/2009/03/25/lift-constructing-building/
About STRATA
“At 147.9 metres, Strata is now SE1′s tallest building a title previously held by Guy’s Tower (143 metres). Strata is likely to keep the title until the Shard at London Bridge is built.
Developers Brookfield Europe also boast that the development – which will include 408 new homes –
will be central London’s tallest residential building when it is completed in April 2010″
From Elephant and Castle website.
B
Strata Tower – Top end of Walworth Road
Developers – Brookfield Multiplex
Architect – Hamilton
Old Castle House site. 43 storeys, 408 homes (30% affordable) and a pavilion with a limited amount of small business space at the bottom. On site Feb 2007. Est. completion 2010
http://www.brookfieldeurope.com/assets
I intend to make a video with a single plan image , representing the size of the frame of my window and the angle of my vision inside .
I ll collect some statements about the place , some sounds on the street and most import there is a particular programme on British TV that I intend to record some voices talking about regeneration areas and houses .
Still is a working in progress , waiting to see if there is potential for a final work .
Elephant and Castle – A History of Change
Elephant and Castle has witnessed dramatic changes in recent times. Three hundred years ago the area was sparsely populated. The villages of Walworth and Newington were set among market gardens, fields and open marshland. 18th century Walworth was a prosperous suburb, but by Victorian times slums had swallowed up the commons. The 19th century saw an eightfold increase in the population.
Elephant and Castle has always been an important traffic junction and was once known as “the Piccadilly of South London”Once known as south London’
Began its decline following extensive bomb damage during the Second World War.
The redevelopment of Elephant and Castle is an ambitious programme of change that will culminate in one of the largest regeneration programmes ever seen in Europe.
The £1.5 billion, 70-acre programme includes the creation of a new pedestrianised town centre, market square, green spaces and thousands of new homes and jobs.
Southwark Council is leading this programme so that by 2020, local people can benefit from a dramatically improved physical environment with tree lined streets, high quality open spaces and a largely traffic free environment. They will also enjoy access to more local jobs and training opportunities, and new cultural and leisure facilities such as a cinema and swimming pool.
History of Tilbury Industrial Park
In 1973 approximately 726 acres were purchased along the south shore of the Fraser River in North Delta, B.C. With the growing demand for industrial zoned property close to 402 acres were removed from the Agriculture Land Reserve and zoned Industrial (I-1 and I-2).
In the summer of 1976, dredging commenced, to fill the 120 acres designated as Phase I of the Tilbury Industrial Park, to the 7-foot elevation. Shortly after, in the Autumn of 1976, the servicing and engineering commenced.
September 1977 the installation of water mains and sewer lines took place and preparation was made for roads, curbs and street lighting, which were scheduled for completion in the Spring of ’78. A lead rail track was provided through Phase I, and in March ’78, hydro commenced servicing Phase I with electricity and natural gas was installed in the fall.
In November 1977, a ‘Sod –Turning Ceremony’ was performed on site to commemorate the official opening of Tilbury Industrial Park – Phase I, with the Honourable Don Phillips presiding. The Subdivision Plan of Phase I was registered in the land Registry Office in December 1977 and land sales began in January 1978. It took one year to complete and by the end of 1978 the total acreage sold or leased amounted to 23.93 acres.
In 1979 the sales momentum increased to the point where first years sales were achieved by May by the end of 1979 over 65 acres were sold or under intern agreement. In view of this fact, the urgency to bring Phase II on stream without further delay became paramount. The Development Corporation had previously undertook to fill a further 120 acres to the West of Phase I to the 7-foot elevation in anticipation of this requirement and in May 1979, negotiations began with the Corporation of Delta.
CSM presentation
Thursday 28th May
2pm
Room RLS 714
Red Lion Square, Central Saint Martins
Susana Anagua, Camberwell
Sarah Tremlett, Chelsea
Steven Ball and Cate Elwes, (CSM & Camberwell), will show three short videos on the theme of Narrative and Landscape.
“MATINHA” project is now on.line
portuguese contemporary art onlinearteportugal aims to introduce and make attainable emerging Portuguese contemporary art in a national and international context. the exclusively online format, in Portuguese and English, has two permanently articulating functions: that of a platform for the promotion of the represented artists and an art gallery. it is a meeting point for Portuguese artists and those residing in Portugal who are still defining their creative paths or are consolidating or even reinventing more far reaching trajectories, thus providing sound artistic proposals and a wide ranging outlook of the Portuguese creativity in the field of visual arts. |
National Gallery Lecture Theatre
Friday 15 May
John Cale spoke about his new project for the Venice biennale . The video related to a journey brought me back the notions
Digital Noise-What Place, What value?
This symposium took place at the Stephen Lawrence Gallery in relation to current exhibition. The issues of noise in a digital environment were the theme discussed in both situations. The exhibition brings a body of work all processed by a miss understanding in a communication field.
In the symposium, Jonathan Kearney, brought the history of the interpretation of the idea of noise. When we hear about noise normally, in a common sense, we identify as a bad sound or interference of some communication that went wrong. The noise comes as an error and a mistake, something to annulated and correct. In other hand in the in the 40s a man named Claude Shannon came up with the interpretation that a noise in a process of communication represents the world itself getting interferer with it. A new vision understands noise as an external ad as integrating the world environment to participate in the process. Jonathan in is own research brought the main question: is that the Noise the Human being? That question staid in my mind but not related to the Human but instead the attitude, the Free Will. Is it possible to consider the Noise as the Free will of a determinate system? Even in machinery environment?
This constitutes a turning point to recycle information and recover same expontaniety that has being lost in the ages of machinery perfection. A space to accept Free will. Henri Bergson (or even Kant in earlier times) already did initiate in the latest 19th century the interpretation of the beginning of acceptation of the free will and we can apply to as many environments as we want.
I bought this book in that symposium day at the University library shop.
“The problem which I have chosen is one which is common to metaphysics and psychology, the problem of free will. What I attempt to prove is that all discussion between the determinists and their opponents implies a previous confusion of duration with extensity, of succession with simultaneity, of quality with quantity: this confusion once dispelled, we may perhaps witness the disappearance of the objections raised against free will, of the definitions given of it, and, in a certain sense, of the problem of free will itself. To prove this is the object of the third part of the present volume: the first two chapters, which treat of the conceptions of intensity and duration, have been written as an introduction of the third.” February, 1888. H. Bergson
“Like Evolution is a simple case of survival”
The bottles seams to struggle to run, in metaphorical way as society does , with some destiny that we don’t know . Like crowed places, people creates in a macroscopically view some patterns. The constant move and circulation of people/bottles creates a very ephemeral pattern that when our brain tries to identify a shape that one is already changing to a new one .
Too see more of this project see Sagres page
Energy Tension
“A fluorescent lamp or fluorescent tube is a gas-discharge lamp that uses electricity to excite mercury vapor. The excited mercury atoms produce short-wave ultraviolet light that then causes a phosphor to fluoresce, producing visible light.
Unlike incandescent lamps, fluorescent lamps always require a ballast to regulate the flow of power through the lamp. However, a fluorescent lamp converts electrical power into useful light more efficiently than an incandescent lamp. Lower energy cost typically offsets the higher initial cost of the lamp.”
Seeing Gakona exhibition in Paris gave me a special attention to observe situations of energy tension . The exhibition was more focused in the myth that population creates behind phenomena’s or the use of electrics by Man kind . But those Myths grow up for respect to Nature uncontrolled power.
Video \ Installation
Date 2009
Commissioned by Arcadi
Direction\Production Quayola Music Mira Calix + Autobam Photography James Medcraft Animation Quayola, Labmeta
Duration 7’30’’ Format HD1080p © Quayola
Description
Second piece within the ongoing Strata series, “Strata #2” explores the icons of french gothic imagery and architecture, focusing on the layering of times function and representations. The video describes an imaginary alteration of architectural matter. By moving through the spaces of “Notre Dame” and “Saint Eustache” a process of metamorphosis is slowly revealed, transforming structure and function of the original churches. De-contextualizing religious stained-glass imagery, this piece plays with history and its image. It challenges the stratified historical meanings detained in the western society through time. Assuming different meanings, the represented stained-glass windows appear under a new perspective that focuses on their images rather than on their historical and architectural significance. In a dynamic dialogue between sound, image and architecture, “Strata #2” gives life to a hybrid dimension where reality and artificiality coexist and interact harmoniously.
“Gakona, a small village in the center of Alaska, is home to the American HAARP research program (High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program). Inspired by the works of the inventor Nikola Tesla, it is believed that researchers there are studying the transmission of electricity in the high strata of the atmosphere. But because of its military funding and the fears associated with electromagnetism, HAARP has also become an inexhaustible source of rumors. From climatic disruption to influence over human behavior, this forest of antennas has been credited with powers worthy of science fiction”.
L’Institut du Monde Arabe, by Jean Nouvel, at Paris, France, 1987 to 1988.
On the 7th of April, went to visit the amazing building in Paris dedicated to the Institution of the Arabic World. The facade is made of hundreds of geometrical shapes configuring an Islamic pattern.
Each window as a mechanism with movements that changes considering the intensity of sun, and makes the all pattern also changes. The figures are planed almost like the inside (obliterator) an analogical Photo camera.
But from the inside the ceiling is 9 floors high and the amazing thing is that 4 lifts in constant movement of carrying people up and down, makes the inside patterns looking like science fiction.
“At Paris, France, built 1987 to 1988, a cultural center, mixed use, of frame, glass curtain wall, in a temperate, urban, plaza, near river area, in Modern style.”
Photo, patterned facade facing courtyard · L’Institut du Monde Arabe · Paris, France
Photo by Kevin Matthews © Kevin Matthews
A New ROOM : 506 – F
Elephant and Castle area.
View from a window . (not a final piece, no quality image).
After the invitation to do a project on an elevator/funicular or public lift on a public space in Lisbon became more sensitive to the mechanics and movements of all kind of lifts.
I realise how important is the constant observation of the same view. Could be exaggerated to compare but like Monet painted several times the view of St. Victoire mountain, trough his room window, I found myself addicted to observe every day the different movements of the fans windmills on top of buildings in Elephant and Castle. Later, in a quick research I read that those buildings were already making part of the regeneration project of the area. They are built with ecologic systems of energy.
Caldeiras de Fabrico em cobre na Sala de Brassagem da Central de Cervejas e Bebidas.
Sagres is an industry located near the big city of Lisbon and produces mainly any kind of beer. The Phermentation process and the particular functioning machinery is the interesting point that could be related to the theme of negentropy since they have a highly standard level of recicling and re-using products, energy and materials for example;
Hoping to see the bottles washing machines.
This is a project is waiting for a new visit to the factory space on the 22nd of April.
This a public project in Lisbon
Was delaided until September
The new oppening date is on 18th of September and runs until December 2009
The wheel
Against the wheel
Against the wheel/will
Can a Man’s behaviour be compared or even explained by a physical and scientific phenomenon like Entropy?
In 1978, Alan Parker directed the successful movie entitled Midnight Express. In a particular moment of that movie, a man that has been convicted to 4 years in a Turkish jail for using and trafficking drugs, is seen in a space full of people walking clockwise around a wheel. That man starts walking against the flow, bumping against others that are coming from the opposite direction even while they try to persuade him that he is waking the wrong way. Why are there a Wright and a Wrong way to go around a circle? What phenomenon makes people follow each other? This Metaphor for the rules of society shows how the attraction for the forbidden could end up in a kind of anarchy, which relates to the high level of Entropy that a society can reach.
Comparing that particular moment in the movie with a real life example, imagine London at rush hour, more specifically Piccadilly Circus, crowed with people, the perceptive space limited by its architecture and the square is similar to a roundabout made-up of people.
By necessity, people impose one single direction to circulate and if you need to go in the opposite direction your effort will increase the Entropy in the system within that space.
Piccadilly Circus
(desert after a snow day, I will take one in a rush hour soon )
“Batlle Field (BATALHA)“
In a scientific experiment designed to study the behavior of populations under stress, fish are incrementally introduced in an aquarium. At first, each fish creates its own space. But, as the space available for each individual gets reduced, the fish become increasingly aggressive towards one other. However, there is a point at which the number of fish is so great that the notion of vital space vanishes and the fish settle down as if resigned to their condition. Metaphorically speaking, this experiment raises an interesting question, there is an obvious interpretation whereby in increased disorganization violence will ensue, but from a certain point on enters a phenomenon of auto-organization (restricted available space for each) that results in the lessening of tensions. (Now imagine this at the scale of human society).
“…processes of spatial distribution must take place, roughly comparable perhaps to what can be observed at the human level when a large crowd of people scrambles across an empty auditorium, train, or bathing beach to nd suitable locations.
Here the struggle for elbow room and breathing space results in an elementary order even under conditions approaching homogeneity of structure.”
RUDOLF ARNHEIM
They’re maybe an analogy between the organized behavior of fish and the idea of an irreversible system in physics.
In the world particles there are two types of systems, the reversible and the irreversible one.
The irreversibility of a system alludes to its inability of returning to a previous state; if one takes a compartment A field with particles and another compartment B made void, as particles start a free expansion from compartment A and begin to fill compartment B, they will not return back to the initial compartment without external intervention. While entropy is theoretically possible in reversible and irreversible systems, in practical terms entropy will only occur in irreversible systems. Entropy is also seen as a constantly expansive phenomenon. There are virtually no possibilities to diminish the entropy in a system without increasing the level of entropy of another related and adjacent system.
As a mater of fact, entropy, seen as the potential energy made unusable for any productive goal within a particular active phenomenon, grows in relation with the effort dispensed in its organization. In the case at hand, the fishes work as particles released in a space upon which they will act in self-management of the new delimited area. They will form a collective organizational behavior by which they will establish order. However, does this newly established system entail a diminished level of entropy?
This is especially complex because one can speak of macroscopic and microscopic levels of Entropy. In the case that I’m referring, we are referring to the microscopic dimension of particles, but if one thinks at the scale of the Universe this analysis will have necessarily other premises.
Nonetheless, the intention behind my work is to pursue this investigation to a metaphor beyond the realm scientific truth, not that it’s not at the bases of my studies, but I pretend to observe certain forms of human behavior (circulation; ex: the theory of traffic flow) and the technological functioning of the machine (energy and effort). At this point in my work, I’m not presenting a representation of the behavior in fishes or in humans, but the illustration of a system in self-management and organization.
An electrical power-station receiving energy from a wind park. The wind turbines transform wind power, a form of energy which potential is usually not harnessed for work purposes, into electricity.
Images to Research about Entropy (Energy, Effort )
With a digital Photo camera
(Work in progress, low quality image)
1´25´´
Images to Research about Entropy (Energy, Effort )
With a digital Photo camera
(Work in progress, low quality image)
02´24´´
ROOM 403-A Elephant And Castle
By looking trough the window of my room I observed for several days that were there a windmill on top of the opposite building.
Is incredible the effect of illusion that when you concentrated your eyes on its rotation suddenly it seems that the windmill starts circulate to the opposite side.
Capturing with a camera, could visualize better this illusionary effect.
Thinking that Entropy happens in a state of movement and in irreversible systems, is curious that this effect could represent a contradiction.
A view from the Thames
With a digital Photo camera
(Work in progress, low quality image)
00´32´´
(A work in progress in Lisbon with Ana João Romana)
This project is based on the memories of the workers of this place .
As the memories are the only way to contradict entropy of the place.
By creating a travelling of images of the and researching close to histories of the living working industry the memory here could be a trigger to slow down the speed of the space entropy level. The death could come later.
To see more visit page Galp project on the top.
Matinha storys
The Matinha’s farm is bought. The embankment works start at the riverside. The sand is removed from the left bank. Buildings are demolished; trees from the farm are dig up. Only a house and warehouse are left.
The coal is discharged at the wharf. Slow trolleys make it slide through the rails until the oven’s building.
The house where he lives is close to the factory where he works. At then factory they produce ammonia. He puts an amount on a bottle and takes it home to use as a cleaning product. (The camera focuses on the bottle).
He finishes the army.
His basketball coach tells him about a contest for security at the factory.
CUT TO
He makes the physical exams. Few days later he prepares himself for the first day at work.
SOUND OF AN EXPLOSION
At induction, a fire extinguisher leaves him covered in white from head to toe. He is afraid. He looks at his colleague and notices that he is also alarmed, because of the noise of the steam.
Both laugh.
He works for 40 years at the factory’s laboratory, until it’s closed down in the beginning of 1998.
FADE TO BLACK
When the exhibition Expo 98 opens, in the same location – the oriental part of town near the river – he buys a ticket and visits all the show.
CANTEEN DAY
He and his father work in the same factory. They meet only at the lunch break, in the canteen.
There is an ammonic leak from the tank-car, the coupling bursts. The gas is toxic and irritating. Tons are lost.
In the 60’s lots of people came from Mação, alleged by the start of the factory.
He is the director from the City Gas Factory.
When he visits his homeland he is treated as Mr. Engineer. Relatives ask for jobs for their children.
Besides the gasometer in Matinha, there is another for support in Infante Santo Avenue. They plan to expand the storage area. The population makes them heard and don’t allow.
As a kid he goes to the balneal colony in Venda do Pinheiro and studies at Voz do Operário, in Graça. During school he makes a study visit to the factory in Matinha. The factory is built during the II World War. When it opens is the most recent in Europe.
Ps. Can you please forward this e-mail to the right person
Harper Road
Review:
Maybe I’d have been less disappointed if I’d not queued to get in, but I doubt it. Roger Hiorns has taken a council flat in a block due to be demolished and covered the inside in sulphate crystals.
I can see what he’s attempting to do – transform ‘the everyday’ into a ‘magical’, cavernous, extra-terrestrial place. I imagined this was the effect he was aiming at while experiencing the work and tried, well at least a bit, to enter into the spirit of the thing. But, ultimately, this spectacle didn’t work for me. The queuing did more than build up expectations, it also gave me time to look around and to think about the perceived value of the architecture of the block about to be demolished, to think about the transformation of the Elephant and Castle area, and to contemplate how beautifully the last of the summer sunlight shone through the overgrown foliage of the estate’s central courtyard. Entering the flat from this position, the over-mannered artifice of the installation did not trigger any further thoughts on this particular place, the mourning or celebration of it, or some acknowledgement of the lives lived between these doomed walls. I’m familiar with Hiorns previous sulphate works and, basically, this installation is just like walking into one of them. It could be anywhere – if greater resonance is achieved by the fact that it is in a crumbling, boarded-up estate and not in a gallery then this feels like Hiorns is leeching off the
place, rather than properly responding to it. Artangel gives the work a lot of credibility and there’s even a ritual involved in seeing it – swapping shoes for wellies, leaving bags, wearing special gloves. Once inside I wasn’t so sure why this little performance was necessary, it’s a tiny room and the sulphate crystals were pretty much fixed by this stage. I stayed longer than I probably needed to and ensured I’d taken many photographs, how else could I justify waiting for 15 minutes to go in.
From: Eva
Date: 15 September 2008
Time: 08:38 AM
This comment on Internet blog made me think about the importance of the work was not the spectacle that Eva is telling about the logistic solutions for the observer, but insteat what is behind it, hidden on the process . When I walk in, besides the good feeling of being for the first time in a strange place , not human , I instantly started thinking on the process … How interesting is the concept of crystallizing a moment , for instance photographers debate themselves to crystallize strong moments , and in this case is more than crystallize a house as a moment or a sculpture. Its all about crystallizing the interior of it , the living space . Is to intercept the living inside . This house no longer allow a living environment . I Guess she goes in to it when she says something about the lives lived in between the walls .
Because my concern was centered in capturing and visualizing examples of the reversibility of system and those energies spend and creating Entropy , this phenomenon of copper sulphate is really an amazing example .
