Exhibition: 28 September – 13 October 2019
Preview Friday 27 September
Natasha MacVoy presented new works exploring the limits of sight and site, using the tongue as motif, research companion, and mute narrator.
Groping in the Dark
This is slipping from my control I am slipping I am slippery Talking is slippery
What if I slip and fall? What happens then?
The pieces are body parts My parts
Apart from their parts
Filled with salt Himalayan salt
A reference to the blind, pioneering adventurer, Erik Weihenmayer
I found him when reading about The Brainport, a device that allows the wearer to see using their tongue.
The tongue has the most nerve endings closest to the brain. The Brainport connects a paddle of electrodes, placed on the tongue, to a headcam. The electrodes pop and tingle on the tongue drawing out the images from the camera.
Erik uses it at a climbing wall. He calibrates it by scanning words and then sweeps over the holds on the wall. He scans over them twice to be sure he is launching the right way.
He also uses it to play games with his daughter and for them to laugh together. His daughter can be cheeky and he can correct her.
They have banter. My tongue as a tool
The tongue that is both inside and outside
The tool for language The slippery tool that slops about behind your teeth The intimate Sloppy Slippy Wet Furry Smelly Long Wide Attached
Muscle
Working with a new language Learning a new skill for this body of work
Using my bodyFinding parts that could substitute
A visual language for the walls The walls that define the non-space
Access point Both inside and outside the studios
The walls are temporary Making and marking out spaces
To create a work that takes the line of sight around the site Work that contains the space but cannot be contained in the viewer’s field of vision
Work that leads you to the edges of the space and back. Body parts as measuring tools
scale and proportion
Seeing my seat, sitting on the walls Own it
Sit on it Keep it down Protest Rest Meditate
The salt is flesh Salt enhances the taste of flesh Salt is flavour Salt leaks out in our sweat Sweat is slippery before it is dry and salty Bodies slip over each other with sweat
Caught between holding on and letting go
Hold on Let go Push up with your legs Don’t just pull Launch Read the situation
There is no safety rope and the holds are not for climbing The climb here is internal
It is a dialogue of movement
What to hold onto and what to let go of? What brings us most pleasure
And what do we hold close?
Laughter Playing Being independent
Sitting still Being seen Having space
Groping in the dark
