SEMES SPATIAL

A seme: being the smallest unit of meaning recognized in semantics and referring to a single characteristic of a sememe, serves as a substitute for an object of which it is, in some sense, a representation or sign.? Semes Spatial will present new works including video, reprographics, installation works and sculpture, produced on site and in direct response to both the interior architecture of Campbell Works and its immediate surroundings.

Tom Camm’s practice is primarily video-based, using sound and moving image as a means to decipher the built environment. His approach is observational and is established through precise, static compositions that use space as raw material. Tom is interested in the possibilities for different degrees of synchronisation and ways in which entire works or individual components within them can interact with each other.

Charlotte Laidler is concerned with the relationship we have to the ‘city’ and how our mindset, actions and even personality changes when we enter and leave what can be considered a hostile environment. Charlotte is interested in the banality of the every day; how small, interesting quirks of our day often go unnoticed due to the constant rush of modern life. Observing the way different people react and interact with the spaces and people they come in contact with, and trough archiving and documenting these actions, Laidler examins how colour can affect our mood and personality.

Katie Tindle’s work, although photographic, maintains a sculptural relationship with architectural space. Often commenting on the space they are shown in, the images she produces can be disorientating, and their subjects are often obscured. Favouring traditional photographic methods, Tindle’s works could be regarded as studies of the play of light on the surface, while her methods of display seek to intensify the materiality of the photographic print.

Jessie Churchill’s practice explores the merging space between 2d imagery and 3d installation. By incorporating elements of drawing and painting into a 3d space, the flat image becomes materialised. Installations lean themselves towards the wall as if fallen paintings. Ephemeral and time-limited materials create temporary ever-changing work. Where the image becomes the only permanence.

Florence Lam explores the relationship between time, reality and illusion. Her works are mostly time-based where audiences are invited to witness the constant deterioration of material as a performance. Lam places herself in a position where she is in control of the presentation while simultaneously being completely out of control of how the material performs, therefore creating an illusion of familiar intimacy, exposing the life within the materials as they interact with audiences.

Jacob Whatmore is interested in the instructional act of making, directions and structures as a foundation to create sculpture. The work has a careful balance between improvisation and order. Collaborative processes hold a key part of his practice, which is part of a deep vain of idealism. This romantic perspective of what can be achieved within a piece is what makes his work so intriguing.

Yao Wang’s practice concerns both the concrete everyday materiality and the abstract materiality of an idea, the combination of the two provokes an emotional and sensuous response that Wang explores throughout her work. Her sculptures, often quiet and contemplative, contain the strength and presence of both illusion and reality. They exemplify different ways of seeing, raise questions of perception, and also reflect an intense relationship between Yao and the materials she works with.

Eva Duerden’s work is concerned with the object, the relationship between it and us, our perceptions and the conversations between them. Through the process of collection and assemblage, Duerden transforms materials into ‘things’, with their acknowledgement implicitly embedded. Her work responds to the environment and beautifully maintains a balance between each component, whether it be space, form, texture or the fluctuation and contradictions of harmony.

Ana Gold is interested in the transition between space and place: how an area, when given a function, goes from being a space to a place and then vice versa. Her practice focuses on the evolution, maintenance, and collapse of living spaces. To make a space, many factors must be present, all of which can exist in conjunction with each other, both in their simplest and most complex forms, in our minds. Ana’s work attempts to provide the tools for the audience to create the spaces in their own imagination.

Semes Spatial is curated in collaboration with Katie Tindle