IG:LU, Inverness, until 18 February 2012

CLIMBING the stairs at IG:LU the excitement is never being quite sure what you will find on entering the space.

THIS sense of anticipation is heightened on being led into the Insertion Collective’s debut show. Making an appointment for an experience of 20 minutes duration, limited to a maximum of 5 people and being taken to the piece by one of the artists is an intriguing premise, particularly in a city accustomed to more established rules of artistic display and reception. Insertion Collective’s first collaborative work is more of an event than an exhibition, a journey into conceptual territory anchored to tangible elements of sound and image. It is a work to be negotiated rather than viewed, and while some may find the experience obtuse or disorientating at first, the process of reorientation at the core of this work is what makes it powerful, suggesting a very promising creative trajectory for the group.

Section from work by Georgina Porteous

Artists Georgina Porteous, Mark Creaney and Sid Innes have created a site specific work which plays with audience expectation and perception of the mundane. Stripping the space right back and introducing key elements of sound, image and performance, the group have successfully created an experience which the audience insert themselves into. The expectation of the individual in relation to an art space or gallery together with the seek and find compulsion on being directed into a seemingly bare setting, create an uneasy atmosphere of discovery. Two artists like guardians are also part of the work, their presence, suited authority and positioning informing the self directed nature of moving through a corridor and main room intriguingly flanked by closed white doors. Lighting is minimal; two single bulbs in the main space and the lit corridor suggesting pathway to portal.

Expanding throughout the whole space in a loop is the relationship between a compressed projected image seen through a keyhole at the far end of the corridor and sound through a vent under the floor in the main space. Movement between these two elements, separated spatially but brought together in the mind once the visual element is introduced, encourages the viewer to re-evaluate their initial perceptions of sound and meaning on being led into a deceptively empty room. With visual cues to behaviour within a culturally designated space removed, we have to reimagine ourselves.

Photo by Georgina Porteous

The ingenious keyhole viewpoint where a sequence of everyday human action is compressed and redirected into an upward and tunnel-like perspective, subverts expectation of the space behind the door which the viewer is physically unable to enter. Like falling down Alice’s rabbit hole, this disquietingly skewed perspective causes the ground beneath the our feet to feel rather unsteady. This is not a space of certainties but one in which we are forced to grapple with the parameters of the work and our perception of it. It is refreshing to be confronted in such a way by such deceptively minimal elements. In such an environment a myriad of tiny details become apparent; the flow of air onto the surface of your eyeball concentrated in seeing beyond the door, the marks on the floor of age, human movement and habitation, the sounds of the world outside and moments of stillness to be found in an interior space of one’s own.

This is a fascinating and expansive work which bodes well for future Insertion Collective projects and collaborations.

For an appointment call/text the Insertion Collective (07585 547901) or visit the gallery’s webiste (link below). The artists will give a post-exhibition talk at 7pm on the final day of the exhibition, discussing the piece of work and the nature of the Insertion Collective. The session will be followed by a Q&A.

© Georgina Coburn, 2012

Links

• IG:LU