LEVERAGE 

29 May - 15 June 2013

Opening Night | Thursday 30 May 6-8pm

Jacqui Shelton + Hind Habib

Focused on the bodies’ placement and influence on the space it inhabits, gestures are used to experiment with a body’s implications on space. Attempting to affect the physicality of the space, actions, which test the body, are performed – repeatedly running against a wall, squeezing into a tight corner. Often, these efforts produce no effect, the absence of any influence on the space being a reminder of the body that existed, and the failure of its intentions.

IMAGES | Jacqui Shelton + Hind Habib, still, 2013, Untitled, digital photograph, 2012, Untitled, Still, 2013| Images courtesy of the artist. 

LEVERAGE

Actual real thoughts:

-can we influence physical space?
-what is it to influence?
-what counts as influence?
-does anything count as influence?
-does considering influence count as influence?
-does rejecting influence count as influence?
-can you count influence?
-how many influences are there here?
-how many influences are there ever?
-how many influencers are there here?
-how many influencers are there ever?
-how many influences have I done?
(how many influencers have I done?)
-how many influences have other people done?
-how many influences have I done in conjuncture with someone else or other people?
-is a collaboration a combination of multiple influences or a completely new one in itself?
-when we think about physical space are we thinking about it in relation to our bodies or as a separate condition?
-is physical space the space that exists separate to our bodies or in relation to our bodies?
-if we take away our bodies is it still physical space or just space?
-what does it mean to try really hard?
-could you not just try harder?
-is it possible to fail to be of influence?
-is this not still influential?
-can influence be identified/isolated or does it just happen?
-can one explain influence?
-can one explain motivations?
-is the product of motivations and influences not more indicative of these motivations and influences than a sequential explanation of the motivations and influences and how these resulted in their product?
-does explanation change the initial reading and understanding for better or worse?
-do we believe what others tell us to believe or what we choose to?
-what happens when you do nothing?
-what happens when you do something and nothing happens?
-is there a difference?
-is the influence in the gesture of trying to do something, or in the failure of this something having affect?
-is failing to influence what you intended a failure?
-is failing to influence anything a failure?
-is it possible to fail at being of influence?
-is failing to be of influence actually failing?
-does failing exist at all?
-doesn’t some-thing always happen (even if it is no-thing)?
-is a failure a failure or a success?
-is a failure the most influential result?

Statement/Explanation

Focused on the bodies’ placement and influence on the space it inhabits, we use gestures to experiment with a body’s implications on space. Attempting to affect the physicality of the space, actions, which test the body and the structure, are performed – repeatedly running against a wall, squeezing into a tight corner.

In a contemporary society where almost everything is bound by architecture, this pointless resistance towards the structure of a space illustrates a resistance to conform to structural limitations. The affects on the structure of the space are hardly evident, as though the body never intervened at all.

Facing the architectural restrictions, the body now creates a trace/impression. These traces are not intentional but remnants of the suggested struggle. A relationship between body systems and architecture is inevitable. This is a physical investigation that leaves the body so often rendered mute - the lack of narrative highlights the body as a physical fact. Often, these efforts produce no affect, the absence of any influence on the space being a reminder of the body that existed, and the failure of its intentions.

- Jacqui Shelton and Hind Habib