Labelled faces in the wild
Labelled Faces in the wild
Bolton Museum, Uk. 2019
Giclee, variable dimensions
Bolton Museum, Uk. 2019
Giclee, variable dimensions
Labelled faces in the wild arose out of a collaborative archival project between Michael McGinley, Martin Grimes and the curatorial staff at Bolton Museum. As part of our proposed investigation into this archive, we engaged with the outcomes of earlier research where possible. Anthropologists Moor and Uprichard identified that subjective encounters are prompted by the sensual and material characteristics of archival material.[1] Following their lead we began to RESCAN and OBSERVE both the archive itself and the apparatus that houses and enables it.
‘The continuous work of
looking, if you’re really looking critically and with imagination, is to track
that dynamic between submission to power and the unpredictable artistic
understanding of it, the latter always beyond the artist’s conscious intentions’.
Matthew Collings,
(As Antonio Gramsci), Art Review, Vol 65, No 5
Worktown archive.
Building on the museums ‘Art of
Noticing’ programme, ‘Evidence and Perception’ were the central motifs in
our ambition of stirring the imagination of future viewers. Mandel and Sultan’s
1977 publication ‘Evidence’ and Claudio Hils 2004 publication ‘Archive -
Belfast’ offer aesthetic and conceptual guides. Our aim was to produce a body of
productive knowledge (exhibition of photographs, audio and film and
publication) that would contribute positively to the ongoing dialogue with the
Worktown archive.
[1]
Moor, L and Uprichard, E ( 2014 ) The
Materiality of Method: The Case of the Mass Observation [Online]
Labelled faces in the wild