Habit Forming Behaviour
The exhibition
Habit Forming Behaviour brings together several strands
of work by Susan Timmins, which she has been
investigating over the period of her residency at
Crescent Arts.
The
exhibition title lends itself particularly to one
specific area of work that takes the form of serial
projected images. These images immediately seem very
familiar. They show domestic interiors, as photographed
typically by estate agents for low-resolution digital
distribution (with a view to selling properties on their
books). The sheer volume and repetitive pace of images
presented in slide-show form by the artist calls into
question our usual response to such documentation. Where
normally we might dismiss most, and instinctively select
one or two for further ‘viewing’, there is no such
possibility on offer here.
We
cannot fail to make subjective comparisons between the
interiors shown as we scrutinise the choice of décor,
colour scheme, furniture design and arrangement,
architectural ‘features’, fittings and so on. Questions
of taste might elicit a range of involuntary, often
judgemental, responses - noting similarities and
differences between our own choices and those shown in
this rather functional documentation. As the images
accumulate through the viewing, our subjective response
translates into more distanced observation forming an
inventory of sorts. Thus, the act of viewing a range of
seemingly familiar and similar images, as presented by
the artist, invites or implicates the viewer in
something resembling an anthropological case study.
The
three-word exhibition title is suggestive of the
artist’s concerns and approaches within her work. These
can be characterised as repetition, process and
intervention. The element of repetition may exist as
activity, image or physical object and is contingent on
process and/or intervention. All of these aspects are
apparent in a further series of works under the title of
‘Absurd Multiple’. It’s as if the artist is teasing the
viewer a little by presenting multiple versions of an
object which seems recognisable and to which we can put
a name. On closer inspection it eludes straightforward
identification.
“Absurd
Multiple began randomly, attending a workshop at
Yorkshire Sculpture Park, learning the ‘Lost Wax’
process and creating a wax ‘motif’ that will always fail
to fulfill its destined process”. - Susan Timmins
‘Absurd
Multiple’ exists - so far - as cast object,
three-dimensional print and digital image. Each process
offers the potential for infinite identical
reproduction, yet it will be apparent that each object
or image contains individual characteristics and subtle
variations. The act of repetition in the production of
the work mirrors the habits and routines of human
behavior and endeavor. It hints at the absurdities of
our individual traits, or innate cultural conditioning,
that may be so much a part of habit that we cease to be
aware or consider these to be unremarkable.
Stuart Cameron, Director of Crescent Arts
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