Left Hand to Back of Head, Object Held Against Right Thigh

About

The exhibition presents a collection of works that set out to affect the audience on a physical level, through sensations and emotions.

The artists in this group show use film, video, installation and sculpture to form relationships between artworks and the bodies of the audience. This dynamic extends to the title of the show, which may act as an observation, suggestion or direct instruction.

Saboury and Simnett explore visceral relationships between the human body, objects and processes.

Saboury languorously manipulates industrial materials inside her mouth while Simnett derives her narratives from intimate medical processes. Other works anticipate bodies; Finnemore’s sculptures choreograph the gallery visitor, outlining the path they take through the gallery while acting as a support structure for sculptures by other artists.

Much of the work included in Left Hand to Back of Head… shares methods of communication with contemporary dance and movement.

A related performance strand runs through the exhibition inviting dancers, philosophers and writers to make their own responses.

This is the first show by Adam Symthe, Bluecoat’s new curator. He is interested in “how art can produce material affinities with our own bodies. Just as we feel the presence of a dancer, so too art can affect us in the same manner that the beat of a drum might compel us into motion.

“The exhibition draws on the context of Bluecoat as a centre for the arts, an organisation that hosts an array of art forms. Bluecoat continues to enable dialogue between artistic disciplines and this exhibition seeks to articulate the many connections between visual art and performance.”

wih works by: Rowena Harris // Mary Hurrell // Natalie Finnemore // Mitra Saboury // Marianna Simnett // Marie Toseland // Hannah James // Becky Beasley