Persistence
of Vision
, Wood Street
18th June – 30th August 2010
Reviewed by
The latest exhibition at FACT explores the notion that visual perception
and memory are increasingly intertwined with media technology.
Particularly effective in illustrating this concept is the Stalker installation,
a square unit of white corridors with floor-to-ceiling mirrors in each
corner. The disorienting task of chasing reflections of your back around
every turn in hope of finding your face-on reflection is certainly unnerving,
and successfully distorts rational visual memory. The piece - conceived
by AVPD - mimics the manipulation of self representation that occurs when
using image and media technology.
Another installation which focuses on this concept is Mizuki Watanabe’s
In-Between Gaze, in which an out of focus projection is brought into focus
by the viewer using a magnifying glass in front of the lens piece –
by which they themselves are projected onto the film.
The most compelling work at the exhibition has to be Lindsey Seers’
It has to be this way, which tells the story of Seer’s stepsister,
who lost her memory following a road accident. The video piece is projected
inside a ‘memory theatre’, where two circular screens act
as eyes peering into - and out of - memory. The film is narrated by the
woman's ex-partner, who is unsettlingly honest in recounting the events
surrounding her loss of identity. Interestingly, she became fixated with
photographs in her quest for memory, and this reinforces the notion of
memory being shaped by media.
Included in the collection is a plethora of smaller pieces, from photographs
and models to interactive touchscreen games.
For the quality and depth of its pieces, Persistence of Vision has to
be one of the gallery’s most striking and thought-provoking exhibitions
to date.
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