NATASHA MACVOY
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Groping in the dark, detail, solo exhibition, Test Space, Spike Island, Bristol, 2019
Picture
Photo: Max McClure
Groping in the dark, detail, Solo Show, Test Space, Spike Island, Bristol, 2019
Image shows hand painted polyester nets held in place with wood cut and finished as extensions to the skirting, resin casts of body parts filled with Himalayan salt, wooden dowels painted white and acrylic rods cut and shaped to form U's.

Picture
Photo: Max McClure
Groping in the dark, detail, 2019
The resin casts of my rump, knee and elbow picked up the details of my skin on the surface whilst the salt made the pieces equally seductive and replusive. The salt referred to the blind, pioneering climber Erik Weihenmayer and his use of The Brainport, a device that allows the wearer to see using their tongue.

Picture
Photo: Max McClure
Groping in the dark, Installation view, Materials include wood, paper, polyester netting, fabric paint, resin, Himalayan salt, acrylic, dimensions variable, 2019
Groping in the dark took the line of sight around the site - a corridor where the walls define a non-space, access point, both inside and outside the studio.

Picture
Photo: Max McClure
Groping in the dark, detail, 2019
Image shows the net with my cross-legged seat repeated, hand painted using fabric paint, and hung as architectural flats from extensions of the corridor's skirtings. From a distance the nets appeared solid and bright but pixilated and softened when approached. Neon yellow referred to the tennis coaching I performed when my children were small, as I originally sourced the netting to create teaching aids. Resting on protruding wooden dowels, all the U's aligned themselves to provide colons and full stops - places to pause, caught between holding on and letting go.

Picture
Photo: Max McClure
Picture
Picture
Groping in the dark, detail, 2019
Image shows the exhibition text, a stream of consciousness, displayed on plywood, also available to take away. Printed on 300gsm paper and trimmed so the image bled to the edges. The text was woven into a performance talk presented alongside the show that used personal family footage interspersed with research, images and a script.The performance was both independent of, and informed by, the show. Each becoming a prop for the other.
  • ABOUT
  • Notes from the Margin
  • Some Times
  • Groping in the dark
  • SUPPORT
  • Archive