All
societies at all times have sets of beliefs for ordering the world:
magical, mythical, religious or scientific. Domo Baal has invited
Annie Cattrell to curate an exhibition that explores why the magical
remains necessary. 9 practitioners of Art, Architecture and Science
will show work.
Opening: 6 to 9pm on Friday 30th April, when Bryson Gore will show
Magical Butterflies on an ad hoc basis during the opening.
Closing: Saturday 5th June, when Daniel Glaser, will give a talk
called Perceiving Magic at 3 pm.
Bryson Gore performs Magical Butterflies. Gold
moves, and levitates without being touched. As part of this work
Gore is showing a text by Arthur C. Clark describing his Third Law:
"Any sufficiently advanced, or basic, technology is indistinguishable
from magic"
Cathy
Hawley exhibits Sightlines, a series of drawings which
map the presence, and spatial relationships between all the churches
in Rome. Rarely out of sight or mind in this capital the churches
lead us into thousands of interiors which open off the street into
places of worship. Looking beyond the material into another unseen
realm.
In Serpentine 30.04.03 Louise Cattrell's double rainbow shows one
of nature's most magical (or magic) illusions. Transitory and spectacular,
they are invested with the connection between Heaven and Earth and
bridge between one world and another.
Jean Baird's Quill is a three-part work that celebrates
how things are 'written'. The work is a visual play between three
photographed objects. A squid, whose body contains a quill, whose
polka dot skin can be seen either as camouflage or as an attempt
at writing herself.. The squid, through the magic of the photograph,
shares some formal correspondences with the chocolate umbrella;
an already-written feminised object.
Morten L. Kringelbach and
Annie Cattrell
in Unseen Unknown use the architecture of the building and its open
stairway to site an interactive work based on 'subliminal priming'
experiments undertaken by neuroscientists as a method of enquiry
into how the unconscious sees.
Annie Cattrell also shows a piece about making
what is invisible visible and conversely making what is visible
invisible. She draws upon 'change blindness' which occurs when an
audience is so absorbed by detail that it fails to notice larger
changes as they happen, and 'misdirection of attention' when, for
example, a magician snaps their fingers or waves their wand in order
to divert attention away from a significant moment.
In Wildlife Documentary #7 Suky Best examines Flipbooks
of seagulls derived from video footage, which have undergone a digital
editing process. The footage is then further constructed, choreographed,
reconstructed and re-filmed. The seagull images are video stills
and their re-presentation on video allows us to see the images 'come
to life'. Accompanying sound is released when the flipbooks are
operated enhancing the sense of magic experienced at the illusion
encountered. This work is shown by kind permission of Danielle Arnaud
Contemporary Art.
David Cheeseman is exhibiting a bejewelled levitating
object. He is interested in the 'theatre of illusion' believing
that the 'aura' surrounding the magician lies somewhere between
that of the priest and the scientist: "It requires a level
of discipline, precision and understanding of scientific principles
alongside an intuitive grasp of psychology that encourages us, the
audience, to talk 'about the beyond'"
And on the last day of the exhibition, on Saturday 5th June, at
3pm Daniel Glaser, recently scientist in residence
at the ICA, will give a talk in the gallery called Perceiving Magic.
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