Event

Ian Giles - Captivity

26 Jul 2012

Event times

6.30-9.30pm

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TJ Boulting

London, United Kingdom

Address

Travel Information

  • Tube Oxford Circus, Goodge Street, Great Portland Street
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About

TJ Boulting is pleased to present ‘Captivity', a live performance installation created for the gallery as part of Fitzrovia Lates. The cavernous downstairs space will be transformed into an indoor climbing wall in which rock climbers will explore routes across the walls accompanied by musicians below on electric guitars responding to the climbers. The work places real actions (i.e. rock climbing) within a performed setting, in this way it acts as a theatrical documentary, the real is represented as a spectacle. The work will be on view as a continuous action for 3 hours. How we move, our actions and reactions are born out of thousands of years of being. We hold a historic physical language inherent in our bodies. During mans development climbing was part of surviving; to gather, to hunt and to explore. Although there is now no need for us to climb it is still a simple and natural skill that we possess. Climbing requires a synergy between ones brain and body, strength and strategy combine to allow the body to carry its own weight across a vertical plain. I am interested in thinking of the body as a sculpted material, like a lump of clay it has be shaped and conditioned, its form is in flux; ever collecting and recording knowledge. The climbers will be challenged to take different routes which will be mapped out across the space. A range of colour-coded handholds will signal paths for the climbers. These routes will require stamina and agility and will create a sense of tension in the space — to do is to think. The live guitarists will play long chords, which will echo, around the gallery to build upon the feeling of intense concentration. Mixed in with this music will be the low hum of Acoustic Emissions. These sounds are a naturally occurring phenomenon, whereby external stimuli such as earthquakes generate sources of elastic waves which are trapped inside rocks. These ancient sounds reflect and record a history, Acoustic Emissions are a language which remains unheard until we actively seek it out. The gallery walls will be painted with large colourful geometric shapes to reflect the design of indoor climbing centres. The work is formed of ready-mades, in which the climbers become the active ingredients. They will be choreographed by the act of climbing and their journeys become a formal pattern. The title ‘Captivity' is designed to suggest a controlled setting which is both natural and yet is contained and presented to be viewed. Instead of presenting stylised movement here the real is presented within the artificial. The performance strips us back to our bare bones and explores what it is to be an active being, it presents the body in its raw doing form as a living, working physical form. Biography: Ian Giles (b 1985) works predominantly using performance to explore ideas of physical and. He recently was selected as part of Glasgow International and has shown his performances at Camden Arts Centre, ICA, Whitstable Biennial, Barbican, 20 Hoxton Projects, Paradise Row and Arnolfini gallery. He has just completed his MA in Fine Art from Slade School of Art, London. Previously he completed his BA at Chelsea School of Art. He lives and works in London.

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