Relational Empathy

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This week’s exhibition, #16, had the overarching theme of relationships, with Taylor Ellis’ digital assemblage 'I still look at your profile' being the centre of attention, focusing on a relationship that was ended in real life, with the subsequent ‘internet stalking’ being facilitated, and somewhat encouraged, by social media websites. It has a very DIY aesthetic, with the choice to transform the text bubbles into text boxes an incredibly deliberate one, forcing you to actually observe what’s going on within the collage rather than dismissing the messages as mere offhanded text messages sent over I messenger. This was complimented by Seren Metcalfe’s video work 'Empathy for inanimate objects' where she manipulates a concrete block in order to portray how one feels when they’re in an unrewarding relationship; giving everything but gaining nothing. Concrete blocks are also used in buildings and structures all over the world, providing the foundations, walls and floors of the rooms that we inhabit on a daily basis. Having a relationship with a given space leads me onto Adam Saunders performance work 'Gesture 1.1'. Using software usually associated with live projections at music events, Saunders utilises 3D motion tracking programs to control music by making small, gestural movements with his body. Each artist seems to be looking at the different relationships that puncture their daily lives, Ellis with a defunct lover, Metcalfe with the very rooms she inhabits and Saunders with his own bodily actions.

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​​Curated by Bob Bicknell-Knight