Making Representations

About

A three-day project in the gallery culminates in a one-day symposium and public exhibition opening, led by five artist-researchers - Bill Leslie, Eleanor Suess, Charlotte Warne Thomas, Katie McCallum, Felicity Hammond and Dean Kenning . Their work touches on questions of representation - architectural, filmic, mathematical, linguistic and photographic.

‘On the one hand the “representation” stands in for the reality that is represented, and so invokes absence; on the other hand, it makes that reality visible, and thus suggests presence.’ Carlo Ginzburg

The representation is simultaneously present and absent, a vehicle for transmitting something from the invisible beyond into our perception whilst always already caught in an inevitable failure to bring the reality of that beyond into full awareness. Representations alter, transform and distort, but they can also offer new ways of seeing, unexpected meanings and renewed understanding. Conversely they can be seen as the way by which we construct our reality, selves, and perceptions undermining any sense we might have of direct perception. Making representations the fabric of experience.

During this project questions of representation will be explored both practically in the space and through a series of presentations and discussions. Asking, what use are representations? How are they constructed?  What can they teach us about their object? How do they transform what they represent, and can they be seen as things in their own right?