Documentation of Stuck, an inheritance, a solo exhibition in VIDEO, Rotterdam (March-April 2024).
The show was built around four assemblages compressing sculpture, drawing, and found objects, each of which contained a hidden bluetooth speaker playing one part of an asynchronous, overlapping, self-contradicting, cacophonous fractured monologue.
Installation view showing L-R:
1989-2001, 2004-2024; old shirt, stretcher, charcoal, paper
Haunted Window; plywood, acrylic paint, primed paper, old shirt, bricks. A bluetooth speaker hidden within this work played The Loose Gusty Structure; sound (10 mins)
Where does this voice come from?
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In 20__ I returned to Ireland to deal with my inheritance: a late Georgian townhouse and its contents. Due to the then-recent collapse of the North Atlantic Current and resultant continental cooling, the decay of the house was aggressively accelerating.
I did not have the resources to heat or maintain this inheritance, and complete disintegration seemed inevitable. In a desperate attempt to delay the damp I began burning furniture and other assets in the living room fireplace.
Once all were terminated I myself crawled up the chimney, where I became (and remain) stuck. What’s left to me is to reconstruct—from darkness—that lost inheritance using the only thing that remains to me: my voice.
Reverse of Haunted Window showing pocket for bluetooth speaker and Púca; soot, diprobase, egg, watercolour paper
Twisting things; soot, dibrobase, watercolour paper, timber, plywood, inkjet print*, dowels, collage. A bluetooth speaker hidden within this work played Party (wall) piece, or, or, the mother’s line kinda gets lost; sound (15 mins)
*Bronze sculpture by Ronnie O’Donnell
1989-2001, 2004-2024; old shirt, stretcher, charcoal, paper. A bluetooth speaker hidden within this work played As my bones grew, cold, old, comfort, compact, compressed; sound (17 mins).
The Demon of Dead Language (diptych); paint, pencil, collage, paper
Installation view showing L-R:
Twisting things; soot, dibrobase, watercolour paper, timber, plywood, inkjet print, dowels, collage
Voicebox; timber, plywood, foam, microphone, inkjet prints, pencil, paper, masking tape, lamp. A bluetooth speaker hidden within this work played Master in darkness, stuck; sound (39 mins).
Voicebox; timber, plywood, foam, microphone, inkjet prints, pencil, paper, masking tape, lamp
Voicebox; timber, plywood, foam, microphone, inkjet prints, pencil, paper, masking tape, lamp
Stuck, an inheritance was kindly supported by an O&O (research & development) subsidy from CBK Rotterdam.
