In October 2019 I presented ‘Genia!’, says Marauder at Crownpoint East project space in the east end of Glasgow.
Posthumous
As a posthumous collaboration with my late grandfathers ‘Genia!’, says Marauder explored the mechanics of showing inherited photographic slides. Specifically, I used sound and video to digitally amplify the mechanics of analogue viewing.
Creating the installation was a process for me to look at my grandfathers’ through-the-lens observations in the early 80s. Especially, through elements of wordplay, it was a way for me to pick apart how the way I look at things might be similar, or dissimilar, to how they cast their attention.
Photographic slides were indeed a way for my grandfathers, Albert Taylor and Jack Marshall, to record their everyday life; their families, holidays and pastimes. As a nod to this analogue form of collecting memories I included in the installation objects related to slide photography such as lens cases and light meters.
The word Genia is etymologically connected to the word genealogy. I also made a connection to my family’s Norwegian ancestry by creating a marauder character. ‘Genia!’, says Marauder: a marauding Viking perhaps discovering the origins of genealogical evidence within a precarious set up.
Tampering and arrangement
Additionally, I tampered with slide mounts, adding yellow colour gels and black electrical tape. They were then added to the slide carousel along with those of Albert and Jack, a nod to how possessions are spoiled after someone tampers with their arrangement.
In order to think more about arrangement I have listed below the elements included in the exhibition:
- A video, displayed on a gaming monitor, showing footage of mounted photographic slides during their insertion into, and extraction from, a slide viewer.
- Two active speakers that amplified the sound of each slide hitting the interior of the slide viewer.
- A slide projector displaying the photographic slides on timer.
- A pick-up microphone attached to the projector body with its input connected to an amplifier and mixer, and furthermore a single passive speaker.
- Cotton thread tied to measuring tape. One end fixed to the projector and the other connected to an object. (The object moved each time the projector moved to the next slide.)
- Altered photographic slide mounts, yellow and black rope, as well as XLR leads.
- Earrings and cactus offcuts.
- White archive gloves.
- A printed photograph of me in my dad’s greenhouse as well as a drawing of a celery.
- Photographic ephemera in the style of lens cases and a light meter.