Talking with Ourselves
by Where was Ken?
22nd – 26th April 2008, Triangle Gallery – Chelsea College of Art and Design – London/ UK
22nd April, 6-9pm Private View
23rd April 1-3pm Meet the Artists
23rd April 6.30 -8pm Open discussion chaired by Carey Young
Talking with Ourselves is a video installation that explores the possibilities of virtual communication used in reverse. Virtual conferencing has been widely used to communicate over wide geographic distances and, unlike the telephone or email, is able to make use of non-verbal communication such as eye contact and gesticulation. This art piece exploits this feature, using conferencing software as a tool to produce a series of intimate interviews/ monologues.
The point of departure for this art project was a search for communality among the artists involved. At the beginning of the PhD process, the RF3 (Research Form 3) seemed to be a natural link between the artists, community of the PhD. students and by extension, lecturers at Chelsea College of Art and Design. What is the RF3, and what does the RF3 mean? The RF3 is the form all PhD students have to successfully submit in order to proceed to further stages of study. Over this period of time, students often found themselves in monological conversations, formulating sentences about their individual art practices and condensing the knowledge gathered over many years.
This installation aims to simulate the atmosphere of the days spent on the RF3 and give that experience an artistic form. Student volunteers were asked to respond to a set of questions concerning the RF3. The plurality and the nature of response is an important aspect of the art piece. The parallels can be seen between the virtual communication and the impersonated process of producing the RF3.
The medium at the centre of this installation is the video conferencing software MARRATECH, which captures full screen images of people communicating. Bluish and slightly deformed, mirror-like images of ourselves seen on the full screen inspired further experiments. Based on intellectual uncertainty, whilst also considering implications of narcissism, the video recording was used as a possible way out of the inadequate economies of representation, where the human face is reproduced in the art object.
The exhibition of the video installation, Talking to Ourselves, will be accompanied by a discussion chaired by artist, Carey Young.
Helena Capkova, Dettie Gould and Jo Love are three first year research degree PhD. students from Chelsea College of Art and Design (London/UK) who created an artistic group by accident. Given the opportunity of creating a collaborative piece, the mission of the PhD. students was to come up with a proposal. However, the three, left by others, kept asking ‘Where was Ken?’ a phrase that subsequently became the name of the art group they formed.
Helena Capkova is an art historian, journalist, curator and writer based in London yet active in the Czech Republic, Japan and the UK. She is currently writing her PhD. entitled Interpreting Japan: Central European Architecture and Design 1920 – 1940 at Chelsea College of Art and Design (London, UK). She has been associated with the art happenings Tescodisco (2006), organised a competition for Japanese artists in the UK Kafka International Ltd. (2007) and curated a number of shows in the Aqffin Gallery located in London`s East End.
Dettie is a filmmaker and video artist based in Hastings/London with Mancunian affectations. Primarily working with the moving image she makes work for installation, large-scale projection and experimental documentary. She also dabbles in architectural photography, soundscapes and shermanesque self portraits. She has a thing for all kinds of cameras and editing suites but is romantically linked to her silvery laptop. Borderline, Kino, Northern Exposure, London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival and The Chorlton Arts Festival have all shown her work.
Jo Love is a lecturer in Fine Art at the University of Northampton, and visiting lecturer in Printmaking at Cambridge, Brighton and UCCA. In 2001 she completed a 4-year Fellowship in Print at The Royal Academy of Arts, London. Her works span Photography, Drawing and Printmaking. Recent exhibitions include a site-specific collaborative exhibition We are just watching, Great Eastern Hotel, London in 2007 and 31h 05m, Fukiko, Japan in 2006.