Rebecca Lennon | LIQUID i
EXHIBITION: 21 May - 10 July 2021
OPENING TIMES: Friday - Saturday, 11am-6pm, or by appointment
Please click here to read our health and safety information regarding COVID-19
The first fish to be put here was named. She was slippery, hard to catch. But they all came here to find her, even so - relishing the challenge. The first to catch her got to give her the name that would define her narrative, but each after that also had their special moment.
LIQUID is a new and evolving work of performance, audio-visual installation and experimental text. Dealing poetically with urgent themes around finance, housing, the body, the voice, and the porous nature of selfhood, here a movement of liquid is conjured as a shape shifting force, both a guttural linguistic interruption, and the desired ‘object’ of a vampiric thirst.
This first iteration of LIQUID is a pulsing three-channel video with surround sound, intricately edited from Lennon’s voice and combining vocal rhythms of tics, hums, and a textual narrative that haunts the space.
A naming ceremony of a carp fish is Lennon’s starting point for LIQUID i. The air is punctuated by staccato looped footage of a carp being brought out of the water for a photograph with her captor before being returned. As the fish spits out her element for the camera in a process of ritual individuation, mosquitoes are excreting their hosts in rhythmical drips. The figure of the vampire recurs within this series as a melancholy ventriloquist, again shape shifting - reflected both in a human fountain and a toxic seepage that derelicts bodies, words, and homes.
The exhibition at Primary will be followed by a performance-installation at Southwark Park Galleries in 2021. LIQUID i is part of a new body of work being developed by Rebecca Lennon with Primary, Matt’s Gallery and Southwark Park Galleries, supported by Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. The exhibition at Primary will be accompanied by a newly commissioned text written by Sophie Jung.
Thanks to Carl Gent for featuring in the film, Carl and Alex for Carp fishing footage and Aaron Juneau for information and inspiration.
We’re currently only able to provide level access to the project space and studios on our ground floor. This exhibition is located in our first floor gallery space.
Research & Events
