Merz= Kunstverein Bregenz Austria 2006
Where to start ? What or where is the entry point ? The point of connection; where are those points of reference that constitute our personal historical and experiential baggage that we rely upon to encounter the world? That process of recognition and hence the affirmation of our being in the world cannot be relied upon here.
There are many starting points, there is a turmoil of starting points, mid points and end points all requiring our attention. Each of these ‘points’ is independently on the move. The photograph offers us a temporary respite, it vainly attempts to arrest time in stating categorically that this event actually happened But on closer scrutiny the photograph has failed, it has, as it were, arrived too late only managing to capture a fragment, a detail which whilst it is unique and of itself cannot refer us to the whole.
In both the photoworks and the recent display pieces there is a collision between an ordering of things though neither rational or logical but to do with sense and a kind of schizophrenia which takes the form an overwhelmingness an excess of visual and referential material that refuses to be pinned down within known systems of categorisation. Coupled with this situation is the realisation that each ‘point/event’ appears as a failed and unsuccessful attempt at bringing about a resolution.
These works seem to take their cue from Borgesian narratives establishing platforms of false coherence and stability that in fact operate on the very edge of physical and conceptual collapse.
David Kite
June 06