Unspooling

Unspooling

Abandon Normal Devices (AND)

Cornerhouse, Manchester

02 October - 09 January 2011

Work from 18 artists that use of abandon the usual conventions of cinema. The name of the exhibition was what first intrigued me, triggering my fascination with spools, tapes and recording. Inside a range of cinematic/artistic strategies are spread over two floors including sound, gesture, spoken word, painting, drawing and sculpture. Something must be said for the curators of the exhibition, as the spacing and positioning of the pieces around the room worked well to enhance the viewer experience. Julian Moisander's The Manager, 2010, shows a hanging man projected high up near the ceiling of the gallery, whilst Ming Wong's Life and Death in Venice, 2010, is projected onto impossibly thin perspex sheets, which appear to be floating independently in the space, beautiful. Intricate installation is seen inMichaël Borremans', The German 2004- 2007. A scale model of a cinema space, shrunk to a miniscule size, contains incredibly detailed, tiny figurines, who observe the comparitively giant screen, showing the jerky mannerisms of a suited man. Whether it is the model or the film we should focus upon is unimportant, in any sense it made me stop and look closer ,which deserves some credit.

My main point of interest within this exhibition were not the works themselves but the way the works had been presented, which I thought could be applied to my degree show/ D&AD exhibition in the future.