Leeds Met Gallery and Studio Theatre
"Perhaps Nothing, Perhaps Something"
27th February- 4th April 2009

"My Father once asked me if I knew where yonder was. I smiled I thought that yonder was another word for there. He smiled and said.."No Yonder is between here and there". That little story has stayed with me for years as an example of linguistic magic. It identified a new space- a middle region that was neither here nor there- a place that simply didn't exist for me until it was given a name" Yonder- Siri Hustvedt.

Perhaps Nothing , Perhaps Something presents the work of six contemporary artists working in a variety of media including sculpture, video, sound and light. The exhibition asks the viewer to contemplate the non-visible the in between moments and spaces that exist only in the periphery of their vision, to give value to those gestures often overlooked.

I like the idea of imagining the non visible, using materials to suggest a gesture which is sort of what were trying to do in the materiality brief. The idea of absence and present is very interesting, this exhibition is asking the audience to do a very complex thing and look beyond the seen and imagine the unseen. This similarly reminds me of Doris Salcedos work in which she uses chairs to fill a gap between 2 houses where a house should have gone at the Istanbul Biennial. The use of a chair an object which with no one sat on it suggests an absence, a lack of presence.

In Cornelia Parkers Neither From Nor Towards, the brick have been retrieved from beneath the white cliffs of Dover they are the remnants of an eroded house. The bricks symbolize a passage of time and a memory of the previous life. It questions the notions of the existence of the house in its whole state.

She has hung and arranged them in a simple house shape, returning the bricks to a semblance of their original purpose. Whilst aping the house they once were, they no longer perform any function related to a house.


Rachel Whiteread- "Untitled" (6 Spaces)


It was created by casting the space between six unidentified seats. As with much of Whitereads practice this work brings to our attention a negative space inherent in any form. Giving light to a space not often considered we question why the artist has chosen to create this work from domestic nothingness. I asked the exhibition assistant what the casts were made out of and she thought they were made from resin, but i don't know how she created the amber type colours as usually resin is clear?.


Paul Rooneys sound piece "Words and Silence" comprised 4 headphones hung on a protruding piece of wood with 2 seats placed at opposite ends enticing the audience to sit and listen to the work. Although I didn't really like the sound piece the way the work was presented to an audience was interesting.