Much
Throughout the run up to Much, we made multiple pushes with distinct intention and with specific direction. These forerunners, streamlined in concept, provided distinct pulls to all associate with collectively and move towards, whilst becoming more aware that the harvest of detritus that falls behind these was more adaptable to move forwards with, to glean these left overs that had more complexed questions coiled within them, and to look at them together. But still jumping onto the fireworks, just making sure these were ignited as multi-directionally as possible, enjoying occupying the new planes that were opened and stretched between these eccentric arcs. These planes are translucent and operate like filters, or sieves, letting through light in the same way the purple plankton used to do for the green plankton, which operated at a lower ocean depth. We want to make images of things, these photogenic bundles ricocheting through cables, light translated via coded sequences, surging up communication towers and flexing into their electromagnetic waves, volleyed between various dishes, glancing at each other from the fringes of the stratosphere, back down, through and blooming on multiple screens in a variety of hues. These things are celebratory paraphernalia. The words “parable” and “parabola” both (kind of) come from the same Greek root word parabolē, meaning to place things side by side, as a comparison. With para being 'beside, near, resembling' (like paraphernalia), and parable, like a parasite: something that lives within something else (it's host). The amalgamations we put together were hosting thoughts / images (or shadows) of themselves / movements. Towards a sort of sun worship, or the welcoming of sun into practice in order to fluctuate an understanding of time; which is often maintained by the regulated tempo of electricity. Thinking about a shadow being something cast or thrown by something else. The solar cookers (warmers) function with their parabola shape in the same way as satellite dishes and listening dishes do: a shape that amplifies or focusses things. But understanding the importance of maintaining multiple focal points at once. With the solar cookers for example: the opportunity of multiple focal points bringing the ability for there to be multiple hobs, and therefore more complex meals can be cooked. The objects exist as banners or signposts, as placeholders or directors which highlight areas of interest.

A parabola is a curved line that corresponds to a shifting point, where a circle responds to a fixed point. With a parable being a story that uses imagery in order to make a point that is not explicitly identified. When you throw something, the arc it makes is a parabola, it is a symmetrical curve, but it is not a semicircle. The live broadcast exercises we were testing through last summer had similar intentions, as group activities where the detritus / meetings / decompositions of individual practice could lean into one another. Tracing the unfolding questions in the following weeks, the actual formalisation of the broadcast becomes crystallised in real-time, then blurs out of the frame and out of the mind in the weeks after, smaller instances salvaged by whoever is interested in what. We have being trying to learn how to work in a way that has porous enough edges, or perforated edges, to allow others to jump in. The blunt fireworks to kickstart processes, riding exponentially turbulent waves of specificity into decomposition and back out and around again, being aware of different rhythms and the excitement spilling when these align in complex beats, whilst encompassing the times when eyes starting glancing in new directions and these differing paces move out of phase, and the friction summons an arrhythmic dance. To leave edges open, leave doors open, giving leeway, things partitially untied, like the barbs of plants which catch onto you. A lot of the elements of the work are recycled into new roles afterwards, and this understanding brings a need to work with a porosity of form, as you know it will operate once again, in a way you don't yet know. The car dashboard solar-surfer is to solar energy, like the static-electric levitation illusionist is to electricity, and like the shadow puppeteer is to fire. These gimmicks initiate a disintegration of suspicion surrounding something new, via small gestures that deconstruct what might initially be intimidating or overlooked, and allowing it to enter the collective imaginary. We are currently working on a series of solar tracking scarecrows, which use a similar mechanical technique as the Parker space probe. These characters will dance heliotropically, tracing the sun's arc across the city, whilst scaring birds from newly planted seeds and warping shadows of themselves across the rooftop.

With Duncan Gibbs & Victor Ruiz Colomer
LA INFINITA, Barcelona,
February 2019.

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