Overview
Body, Bodies, Embodied Kate McSharry
I gulp a breath and remember the sweeping feet on sandpaper – the sound pauses the act, a gasp for air
between words. Magee’s performance Repeat After Me, holds a place in our collective consciousness
from that opening night in the 126 Gallery. A deep consideration of the relationships between bodies and
the space they occupy. How we act, react and interact with each other and the physical objects of our
world. They illuminated what we learn and take from the body as a sociocultural artefact, that we are all
recording devices
[1] for our experiences and innermost affections.
The wake of the performance left a stillness anchored by moments of reflection and realisation. A ray of
light captures a series of tears and tears; the digital images of Closed Circuit Autovision hold a complex
and slightly unsettling humanness of resilience and painful clarity. My eye drifts towards characteristically
similar forms contained in a hive ablaze with sexual desire and trauma. Panoramic Abject queers the
anatomy of the figure, its immediacy reflected on the gallery wall opposite, presenting where the artist had
previously prepared sandpaper with their skin and syphilis-infected blood. The connection is tragically
vulnerable, followed by powerful release. Pain is held in the body as it remains on the canvas.
Technology is integrated into being.
[2] An algorithm is a formula for solving a problem; data is collected,
and these fragments are coordinated to reveal human behavior. The decision-making process is
embodied. Gathering tangible fragments that reveal human emotion is quite effective when attempted
visually. A camera is a device used to record visual images; it becomes an extension of the body.
[3]
Talbot’s camera extends to the public space quiet moments of intimacy, holding tender stories to an
honest light.
Wandering slowly along this thoughtfully selected series of photographs, I take five steps back, then move
closer again. I make connections along the wall and within myself. Trust with Boy; Shells & Bedsheets
with Brooklyn; Solitude ii with Touch. The accompanying texts (while elegant, somewhat surplus to the
profound imagery) illustrate the candour with which Talbot approaches his photographic practice. Across
from the flesh; flower; fruit; squinted glimpses of light,
[4] you are met with portraits of equanimity. Some
subjects’ hands touch their own face or arm in relaxed demeanour – with subtle placement of the poem
‘touching myself’ hung directly opposite. Pausing again, I notice my silhouette against the images. I reflect
on encounters of care, trust, and the occasional loss of both.
Queer possibilities emerge when we practice the art of speculation: of imagining things otherwise than
they are and creating stories from that impulse.
[5] Space is a form of representation, and if bodies are
conditioned to function according to how they occupy space
[6] then a collective of bodies must act as a
network – a system of interconnected threads. Like wires that distribute information, we rely on shared
ideas to expand our ways of thinking. Body, Bodies, Embodied is a carefully considered open visual diary,
exhibiting how our potential is curtailed without challenging normative idealisation of the body, space, and
the consciousness that binds us together.
