A different perspective of fluidity…
Visits to art galleries can work on many levels.
We visit to see what’s there, what’s the new display; what someone has to say through what they’ve created and brought into a white space to inform, educate, entertain and challenge you. You know. The usual stuff.
In addition, I lapse into finding ways of observing the unexpected interaction between the exhibits and the visitors; the fixed and the constantly variable. 2 + 2 = 5.
Trickster Figures: Sculpture and the Body is the new exhibition (until 7th May 23) at MK Gallery bringing together 11 British artists breaking boundaries with sculptures that invite interplay and exploration and ask questions about our world and how there is growing fluidity in all things; from the natural environment to technology, to our own bodies.
However, an unexpectedly quiet day, with few humans, challenged me to explore the exhibition on a different level than the one I had expected or was expected of me. Perhaps the idea that interaction here was expected was counter to my normal desire to observe interactions that weren’t expected…
What drew my attention this time was the shadows. The counterpoint to the installations had a life and unseen display of its own, from angular to more fluid. Depending on your perspective…
“The historic or mythological “trickster” is often defined as a character who disobeys the rules and defies categories and conventions. The academic and philosopher Donna Haraway refers to tricksters as “wildcards that reconfigure possible worlds” I see the artists in this exhibition doing just that”
Jes Fernie, Curator Trickster Figures.
Artists: Saelia Aparicio, Alice Channer, Jesse Darling, Nicolas Deshayes, Kira Freije, Siobhán Hapaska, Nnena Kalu, Joe Namy, Harold Offeh, Ro Robertson, Vanessa da Silva
All photos ©ShaunArmstrong2023
(see more At The Gallery)