Sk-interfaces

Exploding Borders in Art, Technology and Society
FACT Centre, Wood Street (1st February – 30th March 2008)

Reviewed by Alison Cornmell

It was only recently that I found out that FACT was more than just a cinema/ café to go and see Blade Runner: The Director’s Cut or eat goats’ cheese paninis. It also has a gallery space, where at the moment it is presenting sk-interfaces, an exhibition that shows the work of seventeen artists, each reflecting on the way ‘current technologies are changing our lives, with an emphasis on the transformation process itself’.

It was a busy lunchtime and the lobby/café bustled with Liverpool’s trendy set grabbing lunch or buying their cinema tickets. I was pointed in the direction of gallery 1, where I walked along a dimly lit corridor, the bustle of the café and ticket desk fading away behind me. Despite remaining in the same building it felt like I’d taken a wrong turn somewhere and found myself in a mad scientist’s lair. The large room was dark and people were hard to see. An array of scientific glassware was arranged to create some kind of strange testing apparatus within the black walls. A cabinet was filled with glass jars, with tattooed skin inside. A video installation piece played, showing a prosthetic ear being surgically implanted into someone’s arm.

Feeing very disorientated, and vaguely nauseous left gallery 1 and walked back into natural daylight. Sk-interfaces is one of the most unusual exhibitions I have been to, but honestly I couldn’t tell you if it successfully reflects the way ‘current technologies are changing our lives, with an emphasis on the transformation process itself’. Despite my lack of understanding I still thought it was an amazing exhibition, it was eccentric and peculiar and definitely worth looking at before you buy your salt and vinegar pop corn and watch the latest indie film.

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