Visual art exhibitions and events with a platform for critical writing
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Ettie Spencer, ‘Which Way 2’, rusted metal arrow cage, metal rope, shackles and concrete, wood perches, live finches, 17x12x2ft, 2004.
Dick Institute, Kilmarnock
1 July – 12 August
Reviewed by:
Dissemination and reconstitution: this is what we would live through when attending Ettie Spencer’s exhibition at the Dick Institute. She distinctively investigates the conflicts between man and our contemporary environment, by focusing on the products of mass accumulation and of societal negligence raised by the effects of the post-modern condition.
‘Oh! Mother...’, a series of stacked wire cages, hosts cuttings of an invasive knot-weed plant. Dissemination as a literal botanic dispersal becomes a real and horrific symbol of our post-human and alienated biological condition.
Which Way 2 presents dissemination as a positive chance for discussing the freedom of action over the world. This installation is a giant cage in the shape of an arrow which houses live finches that can freely disseminate within. Following the exhibition, they will eventually be re-housed in more spacious aviaries than the ones they were bred in, and we can only wish man-nature relationship to also go in such a positive way.
In the video recording of the Crossing the line performance, dissemination turns into a maieutic launch of ten upright vacuum cleaners on the high seas. After being recovered, they might catalyse a contact via the artist’s e-mail address printed on their outer surface. Whatever the outcome, this will have in any case boosted a sort of attention to those appliances we usually discard in thousands.
Now comes the second feature of Ettie Spencer’s works: following dissemination, there is the chance for man to reconstitute the very aspects of the world he has transformed, amassed or often set aside.
Her dynamic artworks ask us to approach these issues, consider their consequences and finally ponder the fate we will allow ourselves.
Writer detail:
Giorgio Fedeli
Venue detail:
Dick Institute
Elmbank Avenue, KILMARNOCK KA1 3BU
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