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The opening of PLEASE TOUCH included performances by Silver & True, Lizzy Le Quesne and Dot Howard.

WARNING: This Show is not Intended for Passive Consumption

PLEASE TOUCH aims to challenge the passive consumption of art. It presents works that draw the audience in; works that require more than just your visual perception – they demand to be experienced.

Whilst the act of touching as suggested by the title of the exhibition is important for some of the works, in others it’s a different kind of involvement you are invited to. You can wash the fears away, sit down and wait, or lay bare your own emotional mindset.

VIDEO FROM THE OPENING NIGHT:

Located next to the entrance, an intriguing photo booth by SAM HOLDEN tries out your (in)sensitivity by playing out various hypothetical scenarios. A photo taken of your facial expression is then projected at the other end of the gallery.

The Italian artists duo Alteregorelativamentesensibili offer some sweet waiting time. Their fascination with the time in-between, the universal and existential process of waiting, resulted in a fictitious waiting room, complete with melting ice-cream as a synthesis of the passing of time.

LAURA KENNEDY’s piece The Book of Not Knowing compromises of 360 soaps engraved with individually hand-stamped ‘fears’. The audience is invited to take part in a creative-destructive process – to preserve the soap as an art object, or to wash away the text and the individual fear it represents.

Similarly, HELEN STURGESS‘ collection of palm-size plasticine shapes entice to be picked up and reshaped, something that the common conventions of displaying art would not allow but here, the suppression of this feeling of restrain is encouraged. Sturgess’ other work, a site-specific installation is a plasticine-covered wall which when touched transfers back some of itself to the person touching.

KAREN STORR’s Maurice’s Chair shares the experience of her extraordinary encounter with two sons of Maurice Flitcroft – a well known eccentric in his local community. She has compiled a book from the text they have written, photographs and newspaper articles.

OLE HAGEN’s head-shaped Nodehead transports you into another space. You look in its eyes and it looks back at you. A video related to the project is shown in the Small Gallery.

SARA KORSHOJ CHRISTENSEN’s Blindgjenger (bomb that does not detonate at impact) allows you to experiment with the comical sound of the ‘none’ explosion, ridiculing the potentially dangerous object and situation.

The interactive assemblages by CHRIS MERCIER are viewed in an intimate process of slow unfolding whilst in his HTMLpress, the analogue technology meets the digital. The tactile process of using the press from 1945 (the Rossendale Communist Party printed their membership cards on it) is in contract with the final product – an html code to take away.

SILVER & TRUE’s Programs test the predictability of the human behaviour, making the love relationships as clear as a chart. Their piece on the opening night, Flirtman, is an interactive mobile phone game Flirtman – a viral event rippling through the gallery crowd.

DOT HOWARD’s and LIZZY LE QUESNE’s performances took place at the opening of Please Touch. LE QUESNE worked with 7 other performers in a visitors-involving dance piece, taking you by surprise by asking to define an individual relationship with the space.

The evening ended with a 5-minute piece by DOT HOWARD unrolling herself from a banner which is part of her artistic statement. The banner will stay in the gallery for the duration of the show.

There is a review of the exhibition on Chocolate Girl’s Blog – CLICK HERE.

The exhibition is open until Friday 25 June, Thu&Fri 10-2pm and Sat&Sun 10-4pm.

CoExist Galleries, TAP, Old Waterworks Building, North Rd, Southend, SS0 7AB