During the COVID-19 pandemic all of us have had to change our daily habits. From sitting in front of our computers all day instead of a classroom or an office, to being scared to ever leave the house again. Everything and everyone has become a threat. You never know what the other person might be ill with, they could just have something stuck in their throat but the sound of a cough makes everyone jump now. And who knows how long it will take until the world can heal from this.
A habit that I have adapted over the last year is wiping all of my groceries and any post I receive. I wish we were able to just simply see where someone has touched and to know if that person was ill or not. Sadly out hands do out ooze neon green liquid that would stick to the items in order to warn us that someone is sick. So, I continue wiping my items in peace.
‘Instruction: Touch’ is an interactive exhibition which explores the rebuilding of our relationship with touch with items, people, spaces. I would like to construct statues representing different types of touch, such as rejection of touch, craving it, the self hug. They would be made out of air drying clay, which while drying is still malleable. The title of the piece indicated what people are allowed to do with the work other than enjoy its visuals – touch. I am interested in how the statues would change their shape over the period of a few hours as every person that passes them has a physical interaction with them.
On the left are design examples for the statues.
A small-scale prototype of how the clay would change as it is being touched.
As this project proposal is a collaboration between Tate Modern (London) and Ca’ Pesaro (Venice), I would like to create a way for people from both locations to engage with each other. During the pandemic the art field has really adapted its ways of presenting work. We have been blessed with works from all over the world which, otherwise, we would have most likely never been able to experience otherwise.
On the left is a sketch of the exhibition at Tate Modern, London
On the right is a sketch of the exhibition at Ca' Pesaro, Venice
On the right is a sketch of the exhibition at Ca' Pesaro, Venice
The same looking statues would be placed on the staircases and in the lifts of both museums. I am interested in what interactions this would create. Would some become trapped in a cramped lift with an odd looking statue that they can touch? What would that look like? Would some have to shimmy their way past one of the statues, brushing against it, in order to walk up the stairs? These are some surprises that I am looking forward to with this project.
In both locations there would, also, be a camera above the statues and a screen near by, on which you can see visitors from the other museum interacting with the same work that you are. A person in Tate Modern can wave at someone looking at the same piece but that is placed in Ca’ Pesaro. There would also be a phone placed next to the statues which directly connects to the same phone next to the same statue in the other location. This way, not only can people see each other, but are also allowed to speak to each other.
