More than meets the eye

More than meets the eye

The University of Essex Gallery is delighted to present
More than meets the eye, an exhibition exploring the everyday interventions of contemporary word-art, curated by six MA Gallery Studies students.

The exhibition will include artworks which display subtle statements, messages or expressions and play with slight and simple changes in everyday situations. The aim is to subtly intervene on everyday campus life, touching wide sections of the University community and beyond with thought-provoking artistic statements. These messages will come from different voices - political, philosophical, banal, humorous, psychological, self-questioning - as diverse and individual as the audience will be.

The MA students responsible for the exhibition said: 'Words function in our culture as vehicles of communication. Everyone encounters words in some form everyday but we tend to take them for granted. We are not always aware how incredibly persuasive they can be. Words install powerful emotions in a person and provoke varied reactions, mental and physical, from subtle to very violent. The method of delivery of these words often contributes to their power. This exhibition will explore how a subtle expression or act of communication can often wield more power than the loudest of shouts'.

The exhibition will reach beyond the physical boundaries of the gallery by taking some of the artworks out into the campus itself. This will be achieved using interventions such as projections, wall graphics and a fly-poster project which will subtly confront an unassuming audience with messages which they may or may not notice or understand straight away, but will create intrigue, curiosity and a desire to find out more. To allow for active visitor involvement in the topic, the gallery will become an open, discursive and engaging environment with a resource area and audio stations, complementing the artwork on display.

More than meets the eye will include works in a mixture of media by the following artists: Laurie Anderson, Charlotte Bernstein, Peter Fischli and David Weiss, Douglas Gordon, Jenny Holzer, Mark Hutchinson, Maurizio Nannucci and David Shrigley. In addition there will be works personally installed around the University campus by Fiona Macalister and Tomas Vanek.

The following program of complementary events will accompany the show.
In association with The University of Essex Arts Film Society, four film screenings including Peter Greenaway's The Pillow Book and Hans Richter's Dreams that Money can Buy will be shown on 14th, 16th, 21st and 23rd June at 7pm. Furthermore, a performance poetry night titled Poetry Rocks will take place on campus Level2, 6th June 9pm-2am. Tickets will be available from the Students Union. Finally, discussion groups to meet the curators will be held in the University Gallery on the 1st, 8th and 15th June 4-6pm. For more information please call
01206 872953.

A catalogue will be produced to accompany the exhibition.

Exhibition dates: 1-25 June 2005
Opening hours: Monday to Friday 11am - 5pm, Saturday 1 - 4.30pm
Address: University of Essex Gallery · Wivenhoe Park · Colchester · CO4 3SQ · United Kingdom

Admission is free