Curators
Hannah Benassi
Shalmali Shetty
Yihang Hu
Participating Artists
Brandon Hendrick
Jina Song
Qiushi Chen
Seongsu Kim
Yihang Hu
Wei Zhang
Wei Zhou
View Bios
Date and Venue
8th November 2019
Britannia Panopticon Music Hall,
117 Trongate, Glasgow
Cover image:
Display shot of the work by
Seongsu Kim
SUMMARY
The exhibition is informed upon the theme of ‘storytelling’. Within this framework we wanted to explore the relevance of everyday experiences that are lost in larger political histories. Our discussions revolved around the space of the museum, the role of everyday objects, cabinets of curiosities and personal memories, experiences and pasts that trickle into current situations. Our idea was to question how one navigates around presenting past histories in the contemporary context, and to observe the cyclical act of storytelling that every individual is involved in.
The purpose was to keep the title simple, yet infuse it with a complex meaning. The title speaks of a personal truth that when expressed by an individual, is received and circulated in the form of a story by the listener. Stories become a repository of ideas, imaginations, lies and biases where interpretation plays a key role.
CURATORIAL ESSAY
My Truth is Your Story
Text by Hannah Benassi, Shalmali Shetty and Yihang Hu
My Truth is Your Story speaks of one’s personal truth that when expressed becomes the listener’s story. The story circulates, over time accumulating ideas, imaginations, biases, lies and retellings, forming a layered narrative and shaping new ideas and truths. Interpretation plays a key role.
The intervention is a conversation that begins and ends with storytelling, making it a cyclical act. Storytelling becomes a form of expressing an experience of the everyday. Every individual who interacts in this space, contributes to the making of an everyday history. Deliberating on the aspect of the ‘everyday’, personal narratives within a social context are explored, that are otherwise lost in the larger picture. Documenting these everyday experiences forms a parallel history, that may expose the vulnerabilities and the fragile nature of ‘political’ histories proffered by museums and other similar institutions.
Six artists from the MFA and a curator as artist from the MLitt, come together to collaborate on this project with stories and anecdotes from their personal experiences informing their practice and shaping their artistic and creative productions. Through the connective act of reflection, each artist highlights how stories and memories can be explored using different mediums. The project presents works across performance, installation, sound, photography and film-making. To begin with, Qiushi Chen wonders, “is the story you say, what you really want to say?” He begins to build barriers within social spaces, metaphorically representing conventional thinking, social taboos and influences that may restrict an individual from doing certain things. But how many will remain confined and how many will step beyond these limitations? Moreover, as a storyteller, will one move beyond these barriers? And if one does, then does that story retain any truth value?
Wei Zhang speaks from an experience of playing gender-fluid roles. The series of photographs aims to correct the bad judgements made on women’s clothing as an everyday experience. Referring back to historical accounts of women in similar situations, Wei draws a parallel between the past and the present context. Documenting a staged house-party, women are seen within an unrestricted space, but, within a private home. In accompaniment are personal stories, voice-recorded, for an intimate
exchange between the teller and the listener.
Yihang Hu is telling/re-telling/de-telling stories relating to his adolescent memory. “Please listen to it first and then take one paper with you.”
Jina Song performs an episode from her ongoing series about Sinja’s dementia, when she finally decides to face her past. From the time when Sinja moved to Glasgow, she has been subconsciously asking herself, ‘Why have all these things happened to me?’ Through this performance, with a recurring pattern to her memories, she seeks to find an answer to the predicament.
Seongsu Kim reflects feelings on the lines of people’s gloomy emotions, neglected spaces in urban areas, and stories that are shunned by modern society. His interest in analog technology from old TVs to film cameras, brings him to address issues of alienation felt within social spaces. While he is introduced to the viewer on one monitor, through another he is seen repeatedly failing in the act of rolling a perfect cigarette, increasingly alienating himself from social gatherings.
Brandon Hendrick casts seemingly disparate items into raw human narratives to have these personifications examine the nature of objects, while questioning how we inform and live through them. They become props from the unspoken narratives of the everyday, whimsical inquiries into how value and meaning are constructed.
How does one document fleeting experiences? Wei Zhou’s series is about intimacy and fleeting human connections. She uses photography to document these everyday ephemeral loves she has personally encountered: a glimpse, a deep conversation, a sweet kiss with a stranger. These fragmented experiences become past memories and intangible feelings that are hard to be categorised and often get left behind.
ABOUT BRITANNIA PANOPTICON MUSIC HALL
Opened in 1857 in the early years of the Victorian era, the Britannia Panopticon is the world’s oldest surviving music hall. Taken over by the influential showman A.E. Pickard in 1906, the next few decades hosted legends such as Jack Buchanan, Sir Harry Lauder, Marie Loftus, Dan Leno, Stan Laurel, amongst others, who brought in life through their performances. The music hall closed down in 1938, yet has lived a number a lives through the last century, transforming into a tailoring shop, a factory and a soulless warehouse and eventually shutting down, reflecting the economic preferences of the time. Rediscovered very recently by the Glasgow historian Judith Bowers, the Britannia Panopticon is now a living museum with a repository of its own past experiences. Stories abound.
ABOUT the_bricolage
We are three curators pursuing our Masters at the Glasgow School of Art. We have come together from diverse professional and geographical backgrounds to collaborate and build on new ideas, within an unfamiliar landscape. We decided to call ourselves the_bricolage, a term that best explains our process of discovering and making. Going back to its French origin, bricolage means to ‘do-it-yourself.’
the_bricolage is working on the theme of ‘storytelling’. Our conversation begins and ends with storytelling, making it a cyclical act. We intend to observe the aspect of the ‘everyday’, where individuals, actors, mediators and the audience, amongst others, participate intentionally or unintentionally to contribute in the making of an everyday history. Our proposal explores how everyday narratives – both personal and social – can challenge and expose the vulnerabilities and the fragile nature of ‘political’ histories proffered by museums and other similar institutions.
Visit our Instagram page the_bricolage
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This project would not have been made possible without the generous support of our tutors Alexandra Ross and Judit Bodor, MLitt Curatorial Practice (Contemporary Art), GSA.
SHALMALI SHETTY 