FUGUE 2009-14 newspapers, work in progress
A fugue is a polyphonic musical compostion – in which several themes, or
voices, are woven into one work. A
‘fugue state’ refers to total, temporary amnesia, loss of identity and
wandering. The word derives from
the Latin ‘fuga’ meaning flight. Begun soon after the death of the
artist's father, the work explores the state of grief and loss.
Newspapers are containers of memory, of the voices of people – a
disappearing medium. ‘Fugue’ could be seen as an exploration of the unconscious
life of newspapers, bypassing language to visualise the human voice anew.
The language of newspapers is a place where, increasingly, the private
becomes public. In this work,
language is brought back to the body, making it private again. Made with an old
straw spinning tool, a ‘wink’, this work asks basic questions about our
diminishing relationship with the everyday stuff of the earth, with place, with
the tactility, and time of making, and wonders if matter will have its
way.
The first version of this work was shown at Bridport Art Centre for 'Countertext' in 2009. The work will be concluded as a performance in 2014.