Who's There

A series of 8-12 pieces of printed fabric, which are cut to the exact size of yoga mats, are arranged on a large open area of floor. The mats suggest possible use (i.e. exercise) while at the same time functioning as platforms for small collections of purpose-made objects which resemble body parts and yoga/exercise paraphernalia. These collections of parts resemble tools, limbs and artifacts. They might appear to enable certain types of activity, in the way that a yoga block might invite a certain type of yoga position, but they are also of course simply discrete sculptural objects. These units, i.e. the ‘mats’ and the other elements that they display, are both objects and subjects. The mats allude to human bodies and serve as supports for non-human bodies.

The series of mats and accompanying objects will be placed and removed according to the availability of the space (sometimes occupied by chairs/church service). The work will act as a temporal event. It’s this durational aspect that pushes them more towards the space of performance and event, liveness. The work will appear and disappear, ebb/flow in sync with the day-to-day use of the shared multifunctional space. As such the work makes use of gaps in time and space, and while there’s a sinister aspect to this sort of occupying of seemingly empty time/space with productivity (especially productivity which relates in part to the optimized performance of the body), there’s also an element of gymnastic adaptation, a pragmatic and nomadic approach to inhabiting space and through this there’s a desire to find spaces within existing structures where one can exist, where one can do as one pleases.

The mats might collectively allude to a social group, a body, individual bodies and the group’s body – a body that will be taken care of by Matthew Wang. Matthew will place and clear away the mats at regular intervals, with direction from myself. Some of the objects will need to be fabricated on site, and their fragile nature will determine the necessarily delicate and deliberate movements of the person who’s responsible for handling them during the period of the exhibition.

Title: 'Who's There?'
Details: dimensions variable (c/a W700 x L700 x H50cm). Clay, hand-printed fabric, yoga blocks.