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Image: Matterlurgy, Hydromancy, film still, 2021. Courtesy the artists
Exhibition
Matterlurgy: Hydromancy
1 Nov 2021 – 31 Jan 2022
Regular hours
- Monday
- Closed
- Tuesday
- 11:00 – 17:00
- Wednesday
- 11:00 – 17:00
- Thursday
- 11:00 – 17:00
- Friday
- 11:00 – 17:00
- Saturday
- 11:00 – 17:00
- Sunday
- Closed
Address
- 142-144 Above Bar Street
- Southampton
England - SO14 7DU
- United Kingdom
Travel Information
- Southampton Central
Filmed on location at the University of Southampton’s National Oceanography Centre, an institute for developing technologies that investigate the world’s oceans, earth systems and biosphere, John Hansard Gallery is pleased to present Hydromancy by Matterlurgy.
About
The film considers the ocean as both sentient agent and scientific object, and blends documentary with artistic intervention. We visit a coral lab bathed in blue light; an engineering workshop where autonomous vehicles are fitted with sensors to measure ocean currents, temperature and chemical composition. Finally, we enter a lab bubbling with cultured algae and phytoplankton.
Hydromancy puts into focus the tools, technologies and spaces involved in ocean sensing and modelling. The camera navigates the laboratory and field as technological and biological merge. Shifting in and out of scale and perspective, water acts as a portal to breach time and space. Like currents within the ocean, data, organisms and media are stirred. Haunting the film is the Hydromancer, an utterance between voice, song, breath and atmosphere; a formless heteroglossia that queries language, representation and forms of knowing.
The film will be shown at John Hansard Gallery from 1–26 November 2021 and online on their website from 1 November 2021–31 January 2022.
Hydromancy was co-commissioned by John Hansard Gallery and Onassis Stegi as part of Weather Engines, curated by Daphne Dragona and Jussi Parikka (Winchester School of Art).
About Matterlurgy
Matterlurgy is a collaborative practice between London-based artists Helena Hunter and Mark Peter Wright. They investigate the critical ecologies of environmental change, across disciplines and media, combining the production of artworks with co-constructed events, exhibitions and live performance.
Matterlurgy’s work has been presented widely across the UK, including Tate Modern, Whitechapel Gallery, ICA and BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, as well as internationally at Bòlit Contemporary Arts Centre (Spain), Mains d’Œuvres (France), Titanik Gallery (Finland), Dalane Kulturfestival, and Rogaland Kunstsenter (Norway).
They have collaborated on projects with scientists at The University of Cambridge, University College London, King’s College London, University of Sheffield and Royal Holloway University of London. Current work includes a cross-disciplinary study about river ecosystems (Arts Catalyst, UK) and ongoing research with the Archipelago Research Institute (Taru Elfving, CCA, Seili/Turku).
