One Second Feature was a solo exhibition of new and existing work exhibited in The Gallery, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK March - April 2019.
The main large daylight exhibition space was used an active studio intermittently for the duration of the show. This enabled me to explore the physicality of a photograph as an object on a huge scale with One Second Feature (Four) a new 40 metre long continuous photographic print held in place with a half tonne granite rock. Also showing in this space was Elektra, a video on a large flatscreen monitor and publication made with artist Alice Walton. This new work operated as a catalyst and backdrop for participatory interventions and events. Allowing the gallery space to be unfixed as a studio enabled a performative testing of the material in a public space, allowing the films and photograph to be prompts for activity, rather than ends in themselves.
In adjacent dark spaces, existing moving image works made in gallery learning contexts over the last twenty years were showing. The opportunity allowed me to explore my term ‘alongsiding’; to work and converse alongside others, where objects, images,dialogue co-exist for a live experience and towards a filmed moment together.The work uses doubles, pairs, and sequences as visual, performative, dialogical modes for looking and communicating.
Four film works* made in gallery-learning contexts give context to collaborative making/talking. The gallery was reimagined as active participatory studio to test ‘alongsiding’ allowing experimentation that resists stasis and resolution, activated through artworks, interventions and events:
* Seventh Heaven, Lost, View, Things that had stories rubbed out films 2000-2010
-One Second Feature- 40x1m floor based photographic print with granite rock
-Elektra film (HDV 6’ loop) Lucas/Walton 2018
-Elektra printed publication
-Choreographed live activation of One Second Feature with dancer Sally Doughty
-Three family workshops with artist Monica Rivas Velasquez combining her practice of ‘reading amongst images’ with ‘alongsiding’ through materials and voice
Duet performance lecture as part of Feature symposium with Anna Lucas, Alice Walton, Hamish MacPherson and Lisa Jacques, Becky Shaw chaired by Hugo Worthy
The exhibition was co-curated with Hugo Worthy, Stacy Boldrick and students from the AMAGS (Art Gallery and Museum Studies) course at University of Leicester