project47

Prior to visiting the sites last Friday, the only way it made sense for me to think about them had been rather than as 4 separate locations but as a series of situations that can inform, reflect, and reframe one another in hope to create some sort of meaningful cross dialogue which rather than parachuting in can plug into the existing networks.

I’ll echo some thoughts from Tuesday, that when entering into or ‘inviting ourselves’ into such a dialogue we need to be aware of our positions, and in some ways how we can unravel things backwards from there to then move into a space which fosters some kind of reciprocal way of working.

In previous projects: location/ collaborators/ approach all grow out of a level platform.  Strands of working evolve, dissolve and reappear over a long period of time, time for everyone involved to congregate and find their own positions within this dialogue.  The  presentation of the sites interrupt this playing out – it presents 4 loaded contexts as the starting point. In this way and post site visit, I think it is good to stand back a bit and examine the perspective – this may allow us to situate the sites ‘midway’ and expand out or focus in from this point, in a none linear approach enabling us to back track – cross between sites and move towards other ways to approach or intervene in this framework that offers a mode of mutual dialogue both within and between locations and projects.

Performing a Prison

In the prison David talked a bit about different modes of communication within the prison and how these informal networks (whether it be a remote toy helicopter or somesort of verbal code) facilitated the distribution of information (of different kinds!) around the building. A prison a place where all limits are placed on platforms for communication and exchange (solitary mealtimes), these networks from a vital mode of movement through and beyond these restrictions.

The invisibility of informal circulation channels reminded me of Yael Davids film – The hand is quicker than the eye – a project made with inmates at Mechelen City Prison. The hand is quicker than the eye is one of the greatest myths in magic. 

The work looked at the parallels between the institutions of the circus and the prison – both having been traditionally pushed to the periphery of the city. However, while the function and architecture of the prison is designed to enclose and holds its inhabitants, the circus is conceived as a space of fantasy and imaginative escape.   A strategy to circumvent physical, and social boundaries.

The title offers an interesting parallel to the prison in a wider sense.  It was the invisibility of the prison and its activities (performed throughout the tour by Kevin) which stood out for me. An invisibility which is fed and folded into the system in many different ways – the building was performing this for me as well, rather than an exterior that was explicitly intimidating, Wormwood Scrubs adopts a strange ambiguous façade swaying between the castle or the barracks.