d i s t a n c i n g   t a c t i c s

Our perceptions of the world are somewhat divorced from reality. It is this situation from which the germ of ambiguity and subjectivity originate.

Since visual perception is one of our faculties of experience, it is therefore not to be ignored likely.

The perceptual space between the real and the perceived is both a phenomenon that can be taken for granted and an area for contemplation and questioning.

Language is at the root of this space and is responsible for our ‘reading’ of the world around us. When we read something, we are perceiving it through language, in this way language acts rather like a filter that both enhances the visual and in equal measure places it in restraint.

I have been prone to expressing [ and often advocating ] a mistrust of language, yet if this filter serves a duel purpose, both stifling and enriching, it seems more appropriate to adopt a more pacifistic and contemplative approach to its analysis.

To an artist visual language can be employed as a tool to enhance or shut down the viewers reading of a work. Mechanized creative processes; such as photography, film, etc, contain a language that is dictated by the nature of the equipment and can be emphasized or deliberately stifled by the photographer or the film maker. Similarly painting, sculpture and more contemporarily, installation are effected by a visual language rooted in the history of each given medium and this history can be referenced or deliberately overturned.

The work exhibited in Windows204 over the next eight weeks will serve two purposes: firstly, to allow a public interaction with the work, where this phenomenon of ‘reading’ can take place.

Secondly it will be analyzed through curative discussion, artist interviews and discussion at

www.2042010.co.uk and through publication at the end of the year.

By taking the role of a curator I am hoping to entice the artist to analyze their practice and discuss the language within their work.

Furthermore, I hope that by erecting this conceptual framework the work will raise the awareness of the onlooker, allowing the participant to not only observe the work in the windows but also observe their own reactions to it, prompting an individual analysis of the phenomenon of perception.