 |
[June 17th
2002]
Article
Inside the Macro-lab
A Small Space -
For some of us to shelter in
A video-installation by the English artist Abigail
Reynolds based on the artists experience with art and science
project The macro-lab in Scotland, presented in the Bunker in H.C
Ørstedsparken, Copenhagen. Part of The Contemplation Room Project.
Text: Kristina Ilsøe, with editting and contributions
by Sophie Pucill. Images: Kristina Ilsøe and
Sophie Pucill.
www.contemplation.dk
Entering the bunker...
The macro-lab
A Slovenian artist has a vision of creating a portable research
base that will finally go to the Antarctic. The Macro-lab as it
is called, is allways populated by two artists and two scientists,
based on the idea that art and science are complimentary disciplines,
which can benifit from each others research, refreshing each other.
Before the final destination the shelter is tested in a variety
of locations, the third one being in the Scottish Highlands, where
Abigail Reynolds participated in the project for two weeks.
Bunker entrance and The Macro-lab seen from the outside,
as a projection on the inside wall of the bunker
A lot of Abigail's work is about landscapes; the way landscapes
are used, and the way we think about landscapes. And to her the
Scottish Highlands, shaped by dear stoking, is an interesting historical
area, a symbol of the aristocratic past.
The landscape accordingly 'ought' to be covered with forest, but
today it's the home of amazingly big hordes of deer, for man to
shoot for cool cash. She explains that she had quite an extreme
experience with cold rainy weather, inside the small non-heated
space of the macro-lab. There were four to six very wet and cold
people in there, and they had to put an effort into keeping each
other warm and sane in this small space, while she filmed the landscapes
and the macro-lab during her stay.
Images of Nature and Technology, Art and Science;
projected on to the curved inside walls of the cave like bunker
in H.C. Ørstedsparken
The film and its context
Aristocratic or not, the breathtaking scenery in the Scottish Highlands
that are presented in the 7 minutes long film are surely worthy
of attention, accompanied by the artists voice-over where the artist
alternately switches between seemingly factual descriptions of her
stay and what she saw there, and a more prose-like seemingly fictional
account taken up with stories such as Noah and his Arc. At the same
time the film gives a good impression of life in the claustrophobic
and ultra-modernly equipped macro-lab in a poetic documentary style.
And the dome shaped bunker, a shelter in it self, underlines this
point, and creates an effective additional dimension to the presentation
of the film. Even if the echo distorts the sound a bit. And Abigail
put attention to the bunker as a space in its own by leaving 5-10
minutes' gaps of silence and darkness between the shows. Contemplating
A projected panorama of the 'natural' landscape from
the Scottish Highlands on to the wall of a bunker situated below
ground level in the city of Copenhagen, and the 'landscape' on the
wall in the bunker...
Abigail put a diary from her stay in her archive box at the gallery
at Ovengaden, which she used to edit the film. At the same time
she was inspired by a passage from the bible, as it is quoted by
Marcel Proust, and no doubt by the enormous amount of rain during
har stay: Noah apparently lived for 900 years, but even so he never
really understood the world, but he never understood the world better
than when he was inside the Ark and couldn't see it...
Abigail found this passage inspiring, as withdrawal from the world
could mean that one would understand it better. To her the isolated
stay in the macro-lab is an example of this distanced kind of contemplation.
The macro-lab placed so remotely gave her a feeling of being on
the arc, partly due to the constant rain and partly because they
spent most of their time looking at satellite photos on the computers,
which gave a completely different way of looking at the world. This
point, connecting the macro-lab with the arc, is mentioned by Abigail's
voice-over in the end of the film. And to present this film in the
middle of the city gives the piece its own inspiring dynamics.
The artist (right) talking with Sofia outside in
the open, in H.C. Ørstedsparken in Copenhagen, summer 2002
Disjunctions and Knowledge
Abigail Reynolds was interested in the disjunctions between different
attitudes to landscapes. The cityscape, where the installation is
presented and where the artist lives her life, in relation to fantasies
about the idea of the 'natural' untouched landscape like that of
the Scottish Highlands. Disjunctions manifest in the extreme contradictions
between imagining a landscape and being in the landscape. She discovered
that in all instances, she was living a fiction where she couldn't
be entirely in control; there were always other non-pre-calculated
factors influencing the perception, both when she imagined the landscape
beforehand, and when she was actually in it, and afterwards when
she recollected what her experience was.
Images of Nature and Technology, Art and Science;
projected on to the curved inside walls of the cave like bunker
in H.C. Ørstedsparken
Another extreme contradiction is the experience of being stuck out
in a very remote place but at the same time having constant access
to every bit of information possible through direct contact to satellites
up above, and the information technology in The macro-lab. From
this perspective The Macro-lab represents a blind spot, where you
have the power to access all information but are removed from the
direct lived experience of having influence on your surroundings.
A claustrophobic relation to the power of knowledge; being those
who know but at the same time without influence.
Also the feeling of being in the middle of nowhere, specifically
positioned within a large open space, but at the same time cooped
up in the limited area of the Micro-lab with very little room for
privacy.
For the artist this element of fiction, the withdrawal from 'reality',
this stepping back, is related to contemplation. When we contemplate
what this experience was like, as the artist does in her video,
what happens is that she discovers that the world she thought she
knew, the lived experience, has changed. She can not actually represent
what it was like, as she couldn't know what it would be like before
she travelled to Scotland.
This experience where the sense of 'before' and 'after' is juxtapositioned,
is a bizarre account of the relation between the idea of 'fiction',
fantasizing an idyllic state, and 'the real'; knowing what it was
like because she experienced it. This process partly being negotiated
through the actual physical hardship of her stay in the macro-lab,
giving some form of meaningful release. The lived experience almost
becoming textual; living it being an abstract experience. The idea
of it; the contemplation of it, being the only 'reality' that she
can truly convey.
More:
The Macro-lab
site
In the Archive box at Overgaden:
"Forrest Bedroom" - video work
"Pink Armadillo" - video work.
Abigail Reynolds entire project will soon be published on the Macro-lab
site
www.contemplation.dk
The Makrolab
Insulation/isolation strategies in fragile environments.
Slovenian artist Marko Peljhan's interdisciplinary research
laboratory. Makrolab is a temporary sustainable laboratory designed
to support 4 - 6 artists and scientists working and living alongside
each other in isolation for up to 120 days. It is designed by Marko
Peljhan and managed by the Projekt Atol Institute. Makrolab in Scotland
takes place during the International Year of Mountains, declared
by the UN General Assembly. It is organised by the Arts Catalyst
with Projekt Atol Instutute, in partnership with Tramway in Glasgow
and the Centre for Mountain Studies at Perth College.
|
|
|
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)