ARTISTS TALKING

Four emerging curators from the Art History and Theory department of the University of Essex (Wen-Chin Chi, Ashlee Gross, Leigh Hazzard and Alex Hugo) engage and helpfully deconstruct our architectural language with a presentation of six international artists working in video, sound, performance, new media, installation and site-specific works.

A figure leaping from a red post box to a red telephone booth, in Alex Villar’s performance video Upwards Mobility, then scales neo-classical buildings (attempting to rival Spiderman), swiftly finding footholds in the blocks of stone. Physically interacting with urban space and form, unusual routes of action are taken in ‘burglar, prank, protester’ mode.

Our mind mapping of the world encircles, flickers and spirals in staggered animated data projections of encoded three-letter words such as CAI, WAR and JFK – potential destinations inducing flights of fantasy and imagination. Entitled Frozen Sky by Langlands and Bell, these encoded systems surround us in our everyday experience of architecture. Symbolised by red and black flag signs, the site-specific work Keep the Flag Flying by Rupert Clamp, signals revolution and social defiance from the university roof. In the gallery space Danger Painting dazzles as a physical barrier of red and white hazard tape , part of a series by Paul Moss where woven shifting zigzag patterns create semi-transparent sculptural-paintings.

Intriguingly a GPS system provides data for line prints documenting individual walks through cities in Walk the Line by Antti Laitinen. Pre-planned with his photographic portrait image superimposed on a city map, obstacle deviations redraw the artist’s image as he physically experiences urban city spaces.

Inspired by the eighteenth century Jantar Mantar observatory gardens of Delhi, Garden of Instruments by Paul Schutze explores linguistics and memory in architectural space. Referring to upgraded knowledge of celestial observations far superior to the Portuguese at this time, “charts sent from Portugal” and “hemispheres” are brief snatches of dialogue that emerge and disappear. The softly spoken words, accompanied by dramatic higher pitch and sonorous sounds, blend beautifully with filmed details of architectural models that reflect diamond-like facets, in this fascinating video animation.