How it just remains, how it subsides, and how it undoes ‘I’

The exhibition 'Deep Surface' is curated by Adrien Allen and supported by Five Walls Projects as part of its sponsored curated series.
The exhibitors are Virginia Overell, David Thomas, Adrien Allen and Shindo Utako.

more info on the gallery website
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vimeo link to 'How it just remains, how it subsides, and how it undoes ‘I’'

Deep Surface

text by Adrien Allen

“One’s ability to grow a hard shell around oneself, like a snail, against which sensations tap their beaks in vain.”[1]

If a surface is understood as a skin that encloses, one can imagine a type of carapace forming, a crust that holds within it a closed individuality, not merging with other bodies or with the world. Yet, our experience of surface can be more participatory, being led by our intention and response, potentially opening our material and psychological exchange with the world. The exhibition ‘Deep Surface’ playfully questions the belief that an ontological enquiry, or search for meaning, is parodied by a fascination with surface. Our encounters with surface need not rest in the hermetic or the superficial, rather we can sense surface as permeable and in continual formation with us and through us. Deep Surface does not assertively accept or resist our culture of easily consumed surfaces, instead it imagines the poetry inherent to a horizontal depth.

[1] Virginia Woolf, The Waves, First published by Hogarth Press, 1931.