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Grace Weir A Fine Line 27 August - 25 September Experimental Art Foundation (EAF)  As noted by Francis McKee (Glasgow curator and writer) in the catalogue essay accompanying this show, the format of this exhibition could mirror a written structure; such as body text and footnotes. Two main film installations, Dust Defying Gravity and Deja Vu fill and dominate the main space of the EAF, while two intimate screens, seats and headphones sit alongside as footnotes of a kind; Paper Exercises and Bending Spacetime In The Basement. These two smaller works depict a collaboration with scientist, Ian Elliot, as does The Darkness And The Light (2002), another film shown in a curtained off space separate from the main viewing area. If we view the exhibition in this textual sense, the main films create the structure of the viewing experience while the scattered footnotes bring attention to scientific theories underlying the films. Paper Exercises and Bending Spacetime In The Basement feature both Ian Elliot and Grace Weir in conversation about in-depth scientific theories of which the viewer can take a passive learning role. Reminiscent of school science videos (vamped up ever so slightly), theories are presented on film with Weir unconsciously reiterating and confirming her understandings for the benefit of Elliot and the viewers. These filmic footnotes serve as the exact scientific structures that the more poetic and less direct main films build from. Weir's use of scientifically oriented filmed footnotes is reversed in McKee's use of written footnotes at the end of 'Experimental Conversations' (his catalogue essay). He utilises the footnote method to imbue his descriptive based writing with historical and scientific traces of the personable and risky side of a science world often associated with quiet precision. These interesting and story-like written footnotes tap into the passionate and explosive personality of science (away from the generalisations of quiet, glasses-wearing scientists) in opposition to the way Weir's main film installations relate scientific theories back to everyday occurrences and capture the 'real' in life.  The personality of science and the image behind the serene layer of continual experimentation is no more evident than in The Darkness And The Light. This film shows Ian Elliot (once again) within an observatory gently explaining specific theories and using a telescope to reflect the image of the sun on a piece of paper. This humble display ends dramatically with the sun's hot reflections causing the paper to burn, referencing perhaps the frustrating side of experimentation and simultaneously the living-on-the-edge element of discovery, and also works as a commentary on the practice of Elliot within his profession. The obvious question then, is why has Weir placed evidence of these scientific studies within a gallery space (in this context), or in large-scale public art spaces (having shown at such events as the Venice Biennale, on the internet as a part of her web projects, or large scale public projections? Is it because, as the catalogue refers, this was the practice of science before public space became controlled and compromised, to capture eyewitnesses? Is it to teach and educate? Science presented to a mass audience (well a mass audience interested in art) using commonplace objects to test theories (such as in ''Bending spacetime in the basement'). I'm not sure, but perhaps more than any of these suggestions, this exhibition does highlight the interrelations between modes of thought of the art and science disciplines. McKee outlines two scientific notions in the catalogue essay; first there are those of exact science and secondly, those of 'essentially inexact yet completely rigorous notions'. This latter area is the domain of scientists, philosophers and artists, and this exhibition an example; science placed within a gallery context and a collaboration between artist and scientist. Through their filmic exploration of theories, attention to minute details and acknowledgment of the interconnectedness of footage and events Weir's two main film installations, 'Deja vu' and 'Dust defying gravity' fit squarely into this category of rigorous exploration. Visually, because of this highly inquisitive view, the resulting films are above all well-shot and appealing works of art. However, after all of this talk of science, perhaps we can say that this exhibition isn't really about science at all. Scientific theories are the easier and more obvious points to grasp onto, just like the footnotes (or the factual theories) bound in rigorous research can underline a less directed or idea unable to be explained through a theory. Time is perhaps the key element to Weir's film installations. Films such as 'Deja vu' (a four minute film) play upon this conception of time, not as a linear and stable structure, but time relative to events and perception. These films trace the passage of time and our understanding of time and its theories within the everyday experience. They seem to build up to a larger more significant event but only result in further detailed exploration. And while nothing spectacular occurs in what we view, the spectacular is shown to fill that of everyday.  |
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