Edited video clip. Exhibited Spacex, Exeter and Towner Gallery, Eastbourne 2003
Commissioned by Radiator, Nottingham 2002
This group of works follows on from a number of others: Avid Metamorphosis I and II, Shrinking the Miniature and Hidden Seas /Surface Waters, all of which touch upon the possibility of re-negotiating the limits of the body/self. Initially as way to deflect constructions of the female body as 'other' leading on to an exploration of the possibilities of ‘becoming’.
While Tails differs from those works featuring coastal environments, which precede and follow it, it demonstrates a similar concern with the question of boundaries.
In this instance I conceived of the idea of making myself into a swarm, a proposition that was realised through the use of a flying harness, along with blue screen video and compositing techniques - combining real time, embodied actions with virtual and digital representations.
A mixture that seems to support the paradox of simultaneously desiring to eradicate the limits of the social, physical, self and the anxieties to which such a loss of identity might give rise.
The above link * coonects to a related animation which allows the user to interact with the swarm by moving the central 'cursor', via their mouse (or equivalent), at different speeds. If the 'courtship' between user and swarm suceeds it triggers a shared sequence in which they dance together.
Exhibited: National Review of Live Art, Glasgow 1994 and ICA, London 1995
Commissioned: Now 96. Exhibited: Bonnington Gallery, Nottingham 1996
Commissioned: Bluecoat Arts Centre and Visionfest.
Exhibited: Bluecoat Arts Centre, Liverpool 1997
![s[H]elf I](/img/rl/h1/ffffff/666666/s%5BH%5Delf%20I.gif)
![s[H]elf I](/2009/02/01/peter-171x136.jpg)
Commissioned: Performulate. Exhibited: Cambridge Darkroom 1998
Residency and screening: Irish Musueum of Modern Art, Dublin. 1999
Exhibited Spacex, Exeter. 2003
A selection from a larger body of images, culled from the internet using the word underwater as a search term, first presented as a slide show at Earth and Ocean Day at the National Oceanography Centre, March 09.
Ranging from 19th century illustrations of Jules Verne's 20,000.00 Leagues Under the Sea, to designs for the proposed Poseidon Mystery Island underwater resort, they chart the emergence of the undersea within visual culture, revealing an increasing drive towards its domestication and a loss of the awe and foreboding that initially characterised such images.
Also notable is the extent to which women seem to both figure within and comfortably inhabit the undersea world.
A series of works in progress, generated at the National
Oceanography Centre, where I am currently Leverhulme Artist in Residence, exhibited as
part of a group show on Mapping at Howard Gardens Gallery,
University of Wales Institute.
Each marks an attempt to engage with processes of representing the
undersea world while providing a counterpoint to the virtual and
optical emphasis of scientific methods. Seeking ways of 'knowing',
centred upon the imagination, desire, the body and touch, capable
of resisting the separation of subject and object demanded by the
use of observation as a way of encountering the world.
Gallery Talk - Dr Tim Le Bas (NOCS) and Rona Lee discuss their current project Truthing Gap exploring methods of visualising and modelling the emergent landscape of the deep sea bed. Chaired by Dr Clive Cazeaux