Visual art exhibitions and events with a platform for critical writing
Droit House, Margate
15 January – 5 March
Reviewed by: Jessika Worrall
The Powell-Cotton Museum and Quex House in Birchington, Kent hosts an extraordinary collection of thousands of hunting trophies from around the world, photographs and, most interestingly, large dioramas depicting stuffed animals in what would have been their natural setting. What makes this place even more eccentric is that part of it can be rented for private parties and wedding ceremonies. What in Victorian times would have been seen as fashionable and a type of virtual interaction seems nowadays unnerving and strangely bizarre.
Turner Contemporary commissioned Tanya Axford for a six-month residency with the resulting work being shown at Droit House in Margate, site of the planned Turner Contemporary.
Upon entering the gallery space one is subjected to beautiful clinking noises; a strange music draws you in to engage in a spectacle of bright lights striking crystal glasses which seem to be spinning endlessly in front of your eyes, creating a trance-like state of mind. While your eyes begin to adjust, it becomes clear that what is actually spinning is several turntables, on which are arranged skilfully mounted crystal glasses. A glass device mimics the arm of a record player hitting some of the glasses as the turntables rotate.
It feels like simple magic until you decide to disengage your gaze from the scene and start to walk around the setting. At once the turntables begin to stop, restart, and an eerie interaction begins to unfold: You are no longer the viewer but seem to be the one being watched. Boundaries shift and the beauty of the illuminated crystal glasses breaking the light seem to masquerade something far more sinister.
With great sensitivity Tanya Axford has created an environment inspired by the interaction between the hunter and the hunted; at the same time she creates histories of imagination while new layers of meaning constantly unfold out of the known context from which the work was created.
Writer detail:
Jessika Worrall is an artist and freelance writer.
Venue detail:
Turner Contemporary (KCC)
17-18 The Parade, Margate CT9 1EY
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