wall-space

The work I will create for "We Are Hidden And We Can See You" began as an experiment in my studio. 

Over the past two years I have created a number of participatory artworks where an object is played with: Artworks where the physical act of interacting with the work acts as a metaphor for cognitive, meaning-finding activities. At some point over the past year I have had the idea to make a work where the exhibiting space itself would become the play-object. More specifically, making a wall an object to be played with. 

I've often contemplated the idea of a wall as projection screen. When an image is placed onto a wall the actual physicality - the bricks, plasterboard or mdf and paint finish - disappear for a moment as the it becomes a screen for an imaginary space. The wall doubles as a void. With an interest in games, I am likewise attracted to how some external walls at schools, sometimes with the help of a few sporting markings, are used as a medium for targets, a tennis net (as the one player hits the wall the ball it goes from serve to receive and back again) or cricket stumps with 'automatic wicketkeeper'. For me, this kind of magic transformation acts as a allegory for a semiotic ability to see beyond the practicalities of a given situation (lets call it 'poetic transcendence') yet also simultaneously acknowledge the blatant reality of the scene (it is just a wall). Or something like that.

This leads me to a situation where about a year ago I circular-drilled a couple of holes in my studio wall (see image) - the intention being an art-activity where small super-bouncy balls would be bounced off the floor through the hole where it would then bounce around in the inside of the wall before settling at the bottom of the void. I considered having an exhibition where the piece would involve a giant tub of bouncy-balls and this interaction. The exhibition would finish when all the balls had been lodged forever in the gap. After spending a significant amount of time attempting to bounce the ball into the holes unsuccessfully in the studio I decided that the art-piece wasn't really going to work.

When curator Shae mentioned this exhibition I realised that it was a chance to resurrect the project. This time I re-imagined the work as a hole up the top of the wall (out of reach) and a hole some distance away to the left or right at the absolute bottom of the wall (like a mouse hole). The 'work' would then consist of a ball being thrown into the top hole, disappearing for a few moments then rolling out back into the gallery space via the bottom hole. The title has eluded me until I began writing this blogpost. I have stumbled upon "Wall-space".

More soon. Nick.