The Middle

MP3 Audio Guide - VOID Gallery / I am what you’ve come to see, 2019

From: I Am What You’ve Come To See (2019) at Void Gallery, Derry. UK, Curated by Mary Cremin. I Am What You've Come To See, transforms the three galleries at VOID into a circular narrative, casting the audience as the central protagonist in a kind of folie à deux. The viewer is compelled to move through the space by a series of scripted audio-visual instructions, staged objects and obtuse props that feign seemingly ungovernable chances - in a ‘mythological’ journey against time. The first work encountered by the viewer is 'Place Your Finger' - a video-work in which the image/idea communicates directly with the viewer-cum-artist as if it were alive. The 'image/idea' invites the viewer-cum-artist to collude with it in various actions until it is 'successful'. Written, performed and animated by Sonia Shiel. The conversation and role-play continues throughout the exhibition with an accompanying audio-work on individual Mp3’s.

In all works of fiction there belies an agreement that the reader/the viewer will allow for a suspension of disbelief. The viewer is compelled to move through the space by a series of scripted audio-visual instructions, staged objects and obtuse props that feign seemingly ungovernable chances in short audio sequenced shape-shifting exercises. The role-play continues throughout the exhibition with the 'image/idea' colluding with the viewer-cum-artist in their various actions. These actions in turn animate the artworks and combine to choreograph the viewers experience of the space.