On Saturday 29 November 2014, Cooper Gallery presented the Roundtable Discussion The Process of Content: on a temporality in contemporary art. Drawn from the proposition that the work of Anna Oppermann acts as 'a practice of thinking', the roundtable discussion was a stimulating gathering of thoughts that elaborated and amplified the histories, politics and social reverberations of art practices in the 1970s and 80s, and the influence and impact they have on our thinking about art and culture today. The event included invited speakers Guy Brett (Curator and Critic, London), Lynda Morris (Curator and Art Historian, Norwich), Tobi Maier (Curator and Writer, São Paulo), Prof. Martin Warnke & Carmen Wedemeyer (Researchers, Leuphana University Lüneburg) and was chaired by Dr. Lisa Otty (Research Fellow, The University of Edinburgh). For more information please see here.
Accompanying the Roundtable Discussion was a series of readings from art writers in Scotland: Frances Davis, Kirsty Hendry, Alex Hetherington, Catherine Street & JL Williams, and Richard Taylor. This series of blog posts on Cooper Gallery Notes publishes the texts from each of the writers who presented their readings at the event.
 |
| Richard Taylor reading 'Observer Singular'. Photo: Kathryn Rattray |
Notes on the reading during the Roundtable discussion on Saturday 29 November 2014.
Before starting his reading, Richard placed a
small clay Peking Opera mask in the hand of an audience member. He asked them
to pass the object around, after considering its size and importance, during
the reading.
The ****** points below are a replacement or
deletion of a given name or ‘person’. During the reading Richard closed his
eyes in silence to momentarily fill the gab before continuing with the
text.
--start--
I am
reminded of a very light touch made on the work of an artist I fail to…
A process to
make link
…the
tableaux, it fails to be viewed from one point and is all-sided.
Setups that
are precarious and destroyed when encountered, discussed, read or seen. The
marionette dance from Escape to Witch Mountain was rendered squirming and
tagged to ripped sound from YouTube videos of Peking Opera. A collection of
opera masks, small, ceramic, entirely breakable. One falls to the floor,
breaks, ceramic, small. Ends up pushed into a body of unfired clay, along with
fake pearls and floral wrapping. Drenched in clove oil the encounter, it was
ritualistic.
Observer -
singular
They were
surely eating the delicacy whilst ritualising times gone by – a rare treat
filling the expanse made by years of different cuts, fried, baked and pressure cooked. They took it from the
newspaper wrapping and ate it raw in the living room,
on
the patterned carpet
with
the television buzzing fuzzy documentaries behind
–
a frame for their delicate consuming.
****** was less than seven years old and quite
small.
They thought
he could not see, but it was gorgeous for him to observe the light from the
screen play on the ridged silver-white meat, as it unfolded from his great
aunt’s hands.
****** never
met her husband, his great uncle, who died before he was born. But photographs
did provide evidence of his looks and his name was Thomas. This guy, the tripe
guy, he seemed familiar, he had a name that made ****** think of cigars.
The tripe
did not smell.
****** had
bathed and could only detect soap residue and talc under his nightgown. Now his
clean skin stretched to see how long the stomach lining really was. Elongated
to watch the ritual, ****** witnessed their smart living room enjoyment. The
cigar man must have found the meat at a specialist store, its quite rare to get
your hands on – in fact it is pretty much extinct. No one under the age of
forty has much experience of it. The next day Violet and Cigar man aka Sid (…his
great aunt preferred Vi instead of Violet) - would take ****** to the museum to
study fossils. But first they would fill their bellies. ******, his toes
started to feel cold.
Timber now cut with goggles on face
Cat wears perfect yellow rims to surround
bottomless black pools that switch to slits next to the fire. The room fills
with heat as each block of wood takes its place. The hearth offers depth from
which to gather warmth, and its gold trim provides support for the cat’s head.
Her eyes meet mine as I copy her posture to bask the same way she does, amongst
the wave of energy, which happily meanders against skin or fur. This position,
however momentary, is respite from a blanket of writing about another place.
Gullan Sands wind surf timber soaked in sea foam, bright skies, bitter cold. To
move forward now would be to burn. A reduction of hands to smouldering lumps
unhinged from use. To retreat back is the only option. Back to shadow, back to
cloth, back to the story of elsewhere.
A sculpture
made by Taylor
featuring a broken ceramic opera mask
sits on the
mantle piece in Strong’s front room.
This location is very specific, but the
delivery of the sculpture was not so.
Taylor had
an imperfect memory of the location of Strong’s house, and the sculpture was
first deposited in a neighbouring back garden. After realising his mistake
Taylor broke in to this garden again, retrieved the piece, found the correct
location, and proceeded to jump the wall in to Strong’s driveway. He reached
the back garden only to be highlighted by the security light – a perfect
illumination for the heavy yet small mass to be placed carefully on the patio.
I am reminded
of a very light touch made by the work of an artist… called….
--end--
You can watch a showreel of the readings by Frances Davis, Kirsty Hendry, Alex Hetherington, Catherine Street & JL Williams, and Richard Taylor via the video below:
Interested in critical art writing? Check out our developing collection of work by writers based in Scotland on the Studio Jamming Critical Writing Residency website. Group Critical Writing Residency, edited by Maria Fusco, was part of Studio Jamming: Artists’ Collaborations in Scotland curated by Cooper Gallery, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in June-August 2014.
No comments:
Post a Comment