WITHOUT GRAVITY

Without Gravity (2014) is an immersive installation that envelops the viewer in an ephemeral atmosphere where time is slowed, and the downward pull of gravity is upturned.

Natural forces like static electricity and the breeze are enlisted as collaborative agents that interact with artificial mass-produced materials to animate the space.

A group of soft sculptures are suspended from the ceiling like inverted sea creatures with clusters of semi-transparent polythene filaments hanging from their translucent bodies. Charged with static electricity, these filaments move in accordance with the viewer’s passage through the gallery space. As they displace the air currents and brush past the soft sculptures, the viewer completes the work.

The work’s animation — its response to the viewer’s trajectory through the gallery — is echoed in the movement of the animated shadows that feature in an accompanying video projection.

Navigating this environment and interacting with the work, the viewer becomes acutely aware of their own presence. A soft floor surface forces them to tread slowly, bringing them into the same rhythm as the activated filaments.

The careful exchange between the organic and the inorganic, between man-made materials and natural force, is not only a question of materiality but is absorbed by the viewer’s body.