Of Other Spaces (2022)
Taking the same title as Foucault’s book, Of Other Spaces sends sounds of different heterotopias to travel 50m+ long woven copper cables to 4 separate and displaced channels.
Image by Julia Gillard.
When Foucault constructed his case for the concept of heterotopias, he referred to Galileo’s support of the Copernican model instead of the earth-centred system to emphasise humanity’s transition from localisation to infinite extension (“a thing’s place was no longer anything but a point in its movement”). As a continuation of my previous work Parallel Rainverse where I reflected on the idea of simultaneous realities, I explore the role of the displaced spacetime that occasionally extends from stable points of movement, and the potentiality of those displaced moments to shift fragments of identity to its core.
Through the long, winding, meshed copper wires, sonic information is transmitted in the flow of electrons and emitted by the speakers. Output are recordings from places which unfortunately still remain as heterotopias in relation to the artist's life; woven and intersected together they mirror the reality but cannot become part of reality. The ogham text on the black acoustic masses are ‘heterotopia’, ‘taistel’ (travel), ‘go deo na ndeor’ (until the end of time).
Possible Format:
→ Installation
→ Audio (4-channel sound/2 stereo sound/mixed stereo sound)
Supported by Arts Council of Northern Ireland and Irish Arts Center, New York.
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Image by Julia Gillard.
Work Title: Of Other Spaces
Year of Production: 2021-2022
Size of Work: Dimension varies
Material/Medium: Copper wires, black acoustic foam, audio speakers, 3 separate field recording sources (2-minute loop)
Project Funding: Arts Council of Northern Ireland and Irish Arts Center, New York.