Slow Works

S_y_d_n_e_y_S_y_d_n_e_y, Sydney (AU)

Mechanismus VII [Subjunctive Theory], detail
Mechanismus VII [Subjunctive Theory]
Sunlight through and C-print on transparent film
Mechanismus VII [Subjunctive Theory], detail
Mechanismus VII [Subjunctive Theory], detail

Slow works brings together the works of various artists dealing with migration and memory. The act of travel, and the ease with which we now can change our location, creates different possibilities for global markets and workforces, and has made it so we need to be flexible and mobile at all times. The traditional idea of traveling, wandering or migrating, sometimes without a destination in mind, has become an abstract concept in the context of time-perception and time-value. Through the materialisation of memory, either by documentation, archiving data, energy or personal memories, the consequences of this abstraction have never had as much impact as they do today. It has become a necessity that we either declare or are imposed upon by.

SYDNEYSYDNEY

Installation view To Duration [Peter Handke]
Burned laser prints on floor. Dimensions changed over time
Installation view To Duration [Peter Handke]
Burned laser prints on floor. Dimensions changed over time
Installation view To Duration [Peter Handke]
Burned laser prints on floor. Dimensions changed over time
Installation view
with Marina Pinsky
To Duration [Peter Handke], detail.
Burned laser prints on floor. Dimensions changed over time
To Duration [Peter Handke], detail
Burned laser prints on floor. Dimensions changed over time

The 40 page poem To Duration by Peter Handke is reduced to ashes, and only partially readable through fragments. In this installation the pages on which the poem is printed are split. One part is installed in a corner of the building that is hardly accessible. The text lies lies around in the same way that objects lie around without being seen or used in a house whose inhabitants are absent because of a holiday or during the week when daily duties are being met. Or imagine the museum outside opening hours, when the doors are closed and the lights are off, but the objects are on display nonetheless. There is a heightened sense of continuity when I think about them continuing their existence without being seen.

The other part of the poem is included in the exbition space and finds its place among other works. Every door that opens or person passing brings this part of the text closer to the brink of disappearance, evoking the idea that each gaze could be the last to read what is printed here.

Personal annotation